The Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada, is the region’s premier healthcare facility and academic centre providing cancer care services in southern Alberta.  

Arup was brought in from the beginning of this project to provide the region with leading-edge cancer care. Our project management expertise was required as the Bridging Consultant for this, the Alberta government’s first design-build project. The Centre is set to open to the public in 2024 and is expected to improve health outcomes and spur job creation in the Calgary region.

Arup worked closely with Alberta Infrastructure to provide a suite of multidisciplinary services. This included early work, authoring the 1,200-page Statement of Requirements and an innovative strategy for design build, including collaborative meetings with RFP proponents. Our team then navigated a design and construction period that included a worldwide pandemic and extensive construction monitoring challenges. Finally, we supported Alberta Infrastructure in post-construction and occupancy activities.

As the first major-design build project for the Alberta Government, the Centre is an ambitious one: a 127,000m2 facility designed to provide leading-edge cancer care to Albertans. The Centre will support and deliver an interdisciplinary and integrated care philosophy to improve patient outcomes, which accommodates research, education, and patient- and family-centred care.

Design build delivery

Alberta Infrastructure had little previous experience in the design-build delivery method. With our extensive global experience in design build, Arup was able to provide valuable guidance on best practice, how design build differs from other delivery methods, the balancing of performance and prescription in the Statement of Requirements and what users and other stakeholders could expect at each design and construction stage.