Project Highlight: Sechelt Hospital
Authentic buildings are legible and transparent, each component’s manufacturing and construction reflects its time and age.
Exterior view of Sechelt Hospital at twilight, Farrow Partners and Perkins + Will, Photographer: Latreille Delage Photography
Located on the Sunshine Coast, northwest of Vancouver, the Sechelt Hospital land was donated by the Sechelt First Nation more than fifty years ago. Once a site of great hardship and trauma cause by Canadian government policies that devastated the Sechelt people, the hospital is now a part of the Truth and Reconciliation process between Indigenous people and settlers.
Detail photo of timber mural at Sechelt Hospital by Farrow Partners and Perkins + Will, Photographer: Latreille Delage Photography
Sechelt First Nation stories of a coherent life involve symbols of illness, healing, death and the afterlife, which are portrayed as a part of a natural life process. Sechelt works of art, such as the timber mural at Sechelt Hospital, tell stories and depict these well-known cultural symbols. The 70ft work of art in the hospital’s main lobby was designed by First Nations artist Shain Jackson.
At twilight, the mural glows through the glazed lobby, exhibiting its craftsmanship from the exterior of the building. The fragmented timber pieces that make up the mural are emulated in the warm brown tones of the cladding surrounding the hospital.
Exterior view of Sechelt Hospital at twilight, Farrow Partners and Perkins + Will, Photographer: Latreille Delage Photography