It’s a debate that happens time and time again; what should a city do about buildings or “eyesores” waiting to be demolished or renovated? This was certainly the debate when deciding the future of the abandoned St. Joseph’s Health Centre (formerly known as the Sudbury General Hospital). The solution; transform the abandoned hospital’s 80,000 square feet of exterior walls and windows into Canada’s largest mural. Today the hospital is a colourful array, interspersed with butterflies and splatters of colour that captures the eyes of all who drive past it. Painted by the famous Los Angelas based artist, RISK, the mural aims to unite people of all genders, races, and sexual orientation.
The Building
The story of the hospital began in 1944 when the Sisters of St. Joseph (a Roman Catholic congregation of women) purchased seven acres of land on Paris Street. Construction began not long after and the new hospital was officially opened in 1950 under the name of the Sudbury General Hospital. The hospital originally had a 200-bed capacity but in 1972 upgrades increased this number to 360, allowing it to keep up with the growing population of Sudbury. Before its closure, the hospital was renamed the St. Joseph’s Health Centre and because of its central location in the region it eventually became the regional referral centre for trauma care and surgeries, and included intensive care units, a poison control center, neurosurgery facilities, multiple laboratories and a medical library.
Throughout the 1990s it was decided that a new hospital was to be built to replace St. Joseph’s. Construction on the new and current hospital began in 1998 at the site of the former Laurentian Hospital near the popular interactive science museum, Science North. St. Joseph’s Health Centre officially closed on March 29, 2010. The Sisters of St. Joseph originally considered to use the building as a long-term care centre, but after a study showed that renovating the 60 year building would be to expensive, the idea was abandoned. As with many hospitals and large buildings of its time, it is likely that complications arising from building materials such as asbestos and the dangerous contamination that often come from healthcare centers made the building to expense to not only renovate into something new, but also to demolish. But this did not stop the developer, Panoramic Properties from purchasing the building in 2010 with plans to transform it into a condominium building.
Using a Building as a Canvas
The building was left deteriorating for nine years until 2019 when the organizers of the Up Here art and music festival in partnership with the building’s owners saw the buildings potential to be used as an artistic canvas. With funding provided by the Ministry of Tourism’s Celebrate Ontario fund, local businesses, and a number of sponsorships, the festival’s organizers hired the well-known American artist, RISK to produce a mural that would cover the entire building. 700 gallons of paint later, the 80,000 square foot mural was completed adding an array of colour to the aging building.
Some people certainly had problems with the final product, complaining about it being a waste of the taxpayer’s money (even though it was only 15% funded by a provincial tourism grant) or saying that the building should just be demolished and done with. Luckily the positive reviews outweighed the negative and it appears that most people seem to love the new look of the building that was once considered an eyesore. Today, the building has come along way from the deteriorated structure it once was. Now, Canada’s largest mural towers over Greater Sudbury and Ramsey Lake as a colorful testament to what a once-neglected building can become.
Sources
CBC News (2019, August 22). Large, colourful mural at Sudbury’s old hospital has people talking. CBC.ca. Found at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/hospital-mural-community-debate-1.5255187.
Saric, T. (2020, September 14). How an abandoned hospital in Sudbury became home to the largest mural in Canada. Freshdaily.ca. Found at https://www.freshdaily.ca/culture/2020/09/sudbury-hospital-mural-canada/
St. Joseph’s Health Centre of Sudbury (n.d.). History. Found at http://www.sjsudbury.com/index.php/st-josephs-health-centre/history-sjhc/.
Sudbury.com (2010, March 23). Final chapter closing on hospital move. Sudbury.com. Found at https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/final-chapter-closing-on-hospital-move-228108.
Also be sure to check out:
The now abandoned St Joseph’s Hospital in Sudbury, Ontario by Talking Walls Photography. Found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvKBtyPAzdA.
