1550 Highbury Avenue North

OXBURY
DENTAL
HEALTH
1550 H i g h b u r y A v e n u e N o r t h, L o n d o n
INDEX – 1550 HIGHBURY AVE. NORTH..
1
COVER SHEET
2
INDEX
3
LOCATION – CITY MAP
4
ZONING – CITY MAP
5
AERIAL VIEW – CITY MAP
6
PROJECT OVERVIEW
7
SITE LOOKING NORTH
8
SITE LOOKING EAST
9
SITE LOOKING SOUTH
10
SITE LOOKING WEST
11
HIGHBURY AVE LOOKING NORTH
12
HIGHBURY AVE LOOKING NORTH
13
HIGHBURY AVE LOOKING SOUTH
14
ARCHITECTURAL SITE PLAN
15
ARCHITECTURAL ELEVATIONS
16
3D FRONT ELEVATION
17
3D MAIN ENTRANCE
18
3D PORCH
19
3D REAR ELEVATION
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Urban Design Brief - Welcome to Oxbury Dental Health.
Oxbury Dental Health is a young, well established dental practice with a staff of approximately eighteen
employees and presently occupies space in one of the Cities Shopping Malls in the North East segment
of the city. In establishing its long term business plan, it was determined that to offer the very best
service to its patients as well as being host and team players with the Dental Community at large in the
City, a new and more conducive premises would be an important part of their business initiatives with
the building expressing the quality and culture of their practice.
The new building will provide sufficient space to enable them to perform the very best dental care
possible in an environment that is residential in scale, inviting and friendly in its appearance, sustainable
and environmentally accomplished in its construction. Finding a suitable location was important to the
Oxbury Dental established patient base. The location identified on the attached map is well within the
search area as well as being reasonably central to existing higher density residential developments.
The site selected is part of a larger parcel of commercially zoned property. There are two existing
buildings on the adjacent site to the North, residential properties to the East, and vacant commercially
zoned land to the South. An older cottage which is one of the original developments on Highbury Ave is
our neighbour immediately to the south which one assumes will eventually become a new commercial
development. Many of the initial urban design ideas included in our design follow closely those goals
and objectives outlined by the City. As the site and building design was being developed for this location,
its integration into the surrounding community became more homogenous. The openness with the
adjoining site to the North, and the residential scale of the buildings on the East side of our site as well
as those on the West side of Highbury Ave., whose gables and landscaping seemed to bridge the
highway and offers a continuous panoramic view into what will eventually become a new commercial
development in an established residential part of the city. This has all the promise of being a very
successful sub-urban community experience.
Goals and Objectives
The urban design goals and objectives that apply to this site are open to creative thinking. The buildings
to the North do not present any particular direction in architectural design and since they have been
built in recent times are not of any heritage importance. The area before being developed in recent
years was mainly farmland with ribbon development along the highway with small cottage type
residences on good sized lots by today’s standards. The existing site is slightly lower than the highway
and by tradition, surface water was drained by an open ditch running in a Northerly direction. Natural
drainage patterns will be maintained as far as possible. However there are plans to widen Highbury
Avenue to a three lane highway in each direction within the next five years and when that happens, an
updated drainage system will no doubt be installed at that time. Public access to the site is very
important and public transit is available on Highbury Ave, otherwise car, bicycle and on foot are
alternatives. Some of these modes of travel may become somewhat restricted due to the increase traffic
loads expected on Higbury Ave. People of all ages, whether fit or physically challenged are vitally
important to the dentistry business and provisions for all modes of transportation are being
incorporated into the design. At a Pre-consultation meeting for this site it was learned that a collector
road is to be included in the design of the site, apart from public transport which will use the highway, it
is anticipated that other modes of transportation will use the collector roads. Since we are most anxious
to show our welcome to patients and visitors to the building we have included canopies over walkways
on the front of the building, to offer some form of protection from the elements. This approach
together with the orientation of the building helps shade parts of the building in summertime hence
reducing the energy requirements for cooling.
Concept Design
The concept design from the start was to make the building very user friendly for the staff, patients and
visitors. The Owners very much wanted the design of the building to have a residential character
together with a style that has proven itself many times before. This responds not only to our clients
wishes but produces a building that is timeless in form and one that supports quality, reliability and a
culture that brings a level of comfort and relaxation to those who work or visit the building and those
who share it as part of their greater community.
The design also responds very fully to the urban design goals and objectives expected by the City for low
rise buildings. After saying that, it is important to remember that urban design recommendations don’t
always adapt well to suburban conditions and at our particular site it is important to set the building
back from the Highway as far as economically possible for many reasons. The noise factor from a major
highway is a serious problem that the City is faced with in many locations, distance and landscaping
significantly helps reduce that issue. A very deliberate move was made to set the building back from the
road to create an importance factor for the building, if you recall from the text above the building design
is a significant contributor to the success of the business both from a Branding point of view as well as
accessibility of visitors to the main entrance at the front of the building.
In developing the design of the building, sustainability and energy conservation has been foremost in
our minds. While the detailed engineering has yet to be done, we envisage the building to be of timber
construction with stone and vinyl siding. The roof will likely be constructed with wood trusses, which is
not only a very economical structural system but is low in carbon contribution. There is an existing well
on the site and we may be able to use some or all of the water for landscape irrigation. We are
investigating using a green approach to parking areas where a mesh mat is placed on crushed stone with
topsoil and grass is used instead of asphalt allowing for natural drainage and reducing the water going
into City Storm sewers. There are many exciting opportunities available to designers and we intend to
make use of the more important ones.
We have not gone into a lot of detail talking about views between buildings, views of important heritage
features you may find in a developed downtown location. However we have demonstrated how we
intend to make the many aspects of urban design work and you will naturally recognize how successfully
they respond to the City guidelines in the sub-urban context. We hope you have enjoyed our
commentary and I will look forward to meeting you and presenting our material to you at the time of
the Peer Review.