Rest Haven Personal Care Home

Client
Southern Health Santé Sud and Rest Haven Nursing Home Inc.
Location
Steinbach, MB
Size
9,500 m2 / 103,600 ft2

With a history dating back to 1946, the private, non-profit, faith-based Rest Haven Personal Care Home provides seniors housing in Steinbach and the surrounding community. The facility is licensed and funded by Manitoba Health Seniors and Active Living and owned and operated by eight Evangelical Mennonite Conference member churches in the area.

In 1984, a new building associated with Rest Haven opened on Friesen Street, providing 60 additional spaces for seniors, including a production kitchen and full laundry suite facilities. In 2017, the building required an expansion to accommodate 143 new resident rooms. ft3 worked collaboratively with Rest Haven, Southern Health–Santé Sud and Manitoba Health's Seniors and Active Living to implement the Small House concept (clustering 12 resident rooms together to create home-like environments) into the expanded design. We also integrated energy efficiencies like PowerSmart into the design. ft3 and relevant parties discussed the project's classification as a B3 occupancy rather than a B2 with the authorities having jurisdiction over several months, arriving at a collective understanding of the implications.

Even though it remained crucial for our team to ensure the project stayed on schedule and under the proper phasing, it was also critical for us to guarantee that current building residents wouldn't have to compromise their quality of life. So, the original facility remained operational during construction. 

The design physically links the expansion to Woodhaven Manor (seniors housing with meals and dining designed by ft3 in the 90s), and the community has repurposed the original facility into a space for neighbourhood and resident functions.