Philanthropists Honoured at Opening of SickKids' Peter Gilgan Centre

Philanthropists Honoured at Opening of SickKids' Peter Gilgan Centre






A few weeks ago we took you inside SickKids’ new 21-storey research tower on Bay Street just north of Dundas. The state-of-the-art Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning will house over 2,000 SickKidsscientists, technicians, researchers, educators, and admin staff within its 750,000 square-feet of laboratories, common areas and six unique research “neighbourhoods”, each with their own three-storey atrium.






On Tuesday morning, the building—built largely through the generosity of those whose lives have been touched by SickKids Hospital—opened its doors, and many of the donors who made the tower possible were on hand, including philanthropist and CEO of Mattamy Homes, lead donor Peter Gilgan.






While Mr. Gilgan’s stunning donation of $40 million led to the facility named in his honour, he is just one of the over 13,000 donors that helped bring this project together.







The Diamond Schmitt Architects-designed facility was built for a cost of $400 million, with partial funding from all three levels of government. While government funding certainly played a part in the project’s construction, half of the funding – that’s $200 million – came from massive philanthropic contributions, fundraising drives, and SickKids staff, who collectively pooled over $5 million themselves.






“This campaign was fueled by the generosity of the community who saw the potential of bringing child health researchers together under one roof” said Ted Garrard, President and CEO or SickKids Foundation. And with the building now completed, that generosity is soon to pay off through the medical and technological advances that will undoubtedly be discovered in this facility. “This building, and the activities that will take place within these walls, symbolize our promise to continue the strong legacy of science, discovery, innovation and learning at SickKids”, said Mary Jo Haddad, President and CEO of The Hospital for Sick Children.






The opening included speeches from government officials, SickKids doctors and contributing donors, as well as remarks from the building’s namesake, Peter Gilgan, and the building’s designer, Don Schmitt of Diamond Schmitt Architects.






Mr. Schmitt spoke of the the firm’s unique design for the building which makes use of several three-storey atrium spaces, each serving a different “research neighbourhood” with a large common area capable of putting your office’s water cooler to shame.







Using spiral staircases to connect the grouped floors of these neighbourhoods, architects at Diamond Schmitt were able to reduce the amount of total elevators needed in the building while providing staff working in the facility with common ground meeting spaces within the research neighbourhood, which have been shown to foster the cross-pollination of ideas in academic and work settings.







To officially mark the opening of the facility, the ribbon—in this case a construction paper chain—was cut by Hunter Kemp, a 6-year-old leukemia survivor and current Patient Ambassador for SickKids.







With the doors to this research facility now open, scientists and researchers can now accelerate their groundbreaking work in one of the most technologically advanced research centres in the world—all thanks to the multiple donors and philanthropists who funded the project. To recognize the generous donations that made the research tower possible, we include the list below of all donors who provided $1 million or more.






$40 million


PETER GILGAN


$10 million or more


1 ANONYMOUS DONOR


$5,000,000 to $9,999,999


THE ESTATE OF RICHARD H. CLARK IN HONOUR OF MARGARET LIMACHER


THE DILAWRI FOUNDATION


THE GARRON FAMILY


THE HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN AND SICKKIDS FOUNDATION STAFF


MINING4LIFE: SUPPORTING MINING COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE


RALLY FOR KIDS WITH CANCER SCAVENGER CUP


SICKKIDS LEADERS


$2,500,000 to $4,999,999


COAST TO COAST AGAINST CANCER FOUNDATION AND JENNA’S ANGELS


JOHN FRANCIS AND SUSAN CASKEY


EDWARD AND SUZANNE ROGERS AND THE ROGERS FOUNDATION


$1,000,000 to $2,499,999


THE CADILLAC FAIRVIEW CORPORATION LIMITED


CARLO FIDANI FOUNDATION


MARIYAM AND BASHIR DAWOOD


IN HONOUR OF ALFREDO DE GASPERIS


THE DELANEY FAMILY FOUNDATION


AL AND ROLANDE FLOOD


HAROLD AND BERNICE GROVES


THE ROBERT HARDING FOUNDATION


HEATWAVE SPORTS INC.


PAUL B. HELLIWELL FOUNDATION


TIM AND LANA HOCKEY


WARREN IRWIN


DONALD K. JACKSON FAMILY FOUNDATION


LIZA MAUER AND ANDREW SHEINER


EARLE AND JANICE O’BORN


GAIL AND DAVID O’BRIEN


THE PITBLADO FAMILY


THE SALTER SOCIETY


IN HONOUR OF SICKKIDS NURSES


JOHN AND MELINDA THOMPSON


UPPER UNIONVILLE GROUP


THE WOLFOND FAMILY


DONALD AND SALLY WRIGHT







Additional information and pre-construction renderings can be found at our dataBase listing, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of the page.