Zeidler-Evans Lecture Program
Monday, September 12, 2022
McMaster Health Sciences Centre
Ewart Angus Centre
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural Architecture of Health: The Annual Zeidler-Evans Lecture, made possible through an extraordinary gift from the family of Dr. John Evans, first dean of medicine at McMaster University.
I hope you enjoy this day and the engaging presentation by Dr. Annmarie Adams of McGill University, whose illustrated talk will explore architectural innovation in three Canadian hospitals, in three cities, from three decades.
This is a wonderful occasion to celebrate and recognize the relationship between the architecture of health-care buildings and the quality of health for their patients and the community.
Enjoy!
Paul O’Byrne, MB, FRCP(C), FRSC
Dean and Vice President
Faculty of Health Sciences
Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine
Three hospitals. Two visionaries. One credo.
Dr. Annmarie Adams’ presentation will demonstrate dynamic links among McMaster University Medical Centre in Hamilton (1972), Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre in Edmonton (1986), and SickKids Hospital in Toronto (1993), as well as connections to iconic buildings beyond health care, including shopping malls, science labs, and even factories. Architect Eberhard Zeidler’s design concepts transformed hospital architecture, reshaping health care buildings around the world. The special relationship of Zeidler and medical educator John Evans illustrates the distinct role of co-production in the case of McMaster.
Dr. Adams holds the Stevenson Chair in the Philosophy and History of Science, including Medicine, at McGill University in Montreal. She has served as both Director of the School of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Social Studies of Medicine. Her award-winning books include Architecture in the Family Way; Designing Women, and Medicine by Design. Her research focuses on the architectural history of medicine.
The Annual Zeidler-Evans Lecture, presented by a leading authority on the Architecture of Health, honours the renowned architect Eberhard Zeidler, who collaborated with Dr. John Evans between 1967 and 1972 to create and build the McMaster Health Sciences Centre. That design for a 1.76-million-square-foot building, combining both a tertiary hospital and university facility to teach health care professionals would transform how hospitals are created, built and used.
Built in the Brutalist style popular at the time, the centre opened in June 1972 with a ribbon cutting attended by then Ontario premier Bill Davis, McMaster president Harry Thode, medical school dean John Evans, architect Eberhard Zeidler, and hundreds of Hamilton citizens who lined up for the open house.
The building has been recognized in architectural journals as presenting a visionary approach to health care architecture and a turning point in Canadian medical history — the shift from hospital to health science centre.
Eb Zeidler designed some of Canada’s most iconic buildings, from the Toronto Eaton Centre and Ontario Place, to SickKids Hospital and Vancouver Place.
Zeidler’s design for McMaster University’s Health Sciences Centre, opened in 1972, transformed the design of hospitals by acknowledging that medicine changes over time, and thus medical buildings have to change their forms and uses as they’re being used. The World Hospital Congress called the McMaster facility “obsolescence-proof.”
In recognition of his excellence, Zeidler was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, received a gold medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture by the University of Toronto.
Dr. John Robert Evans was the founder and dean of the McMaster University Medical School. He and his team of colleagues built a different type of medical school with small group, self-directed, problem-based learning, and the ‘McMaster Method’ has been adopted in whole or part by medical schools around the world.
In 1972, Evans left to become president of the University of Toronto and in 1979, he became the founding director of the Population, Health and Nutrition Department of the World Bank in Washington, DC. In 1987, Evans became the first Canadian to chair the Rockefeller Foundation, which he led for eight years.
Following his medical and academic careers, he became a business leader, chairing Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Torstar Corporation and Alcan Aluminum Ltd. He also chaired and helped create the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.
Monday, September 12, 2022
McMaster Health Sciences Centre
Ewart Angus Centre
