January 24, 2006

CNIB offices offers a model site

DAN O’REILLY

CORRESPONDENT

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s Service Centre building on Bayview Avenue in Toronto is not only highly accessible to its clients, visitors and employees, it’s also a model of accessibility for others to follow.

Opened in September 2004, the 140,000-square-foot concrete, glass and masonry building serves as the CNIB’s national headquarters, Ontario regional headquarters and Toronto Service Centre. It is also home to the Institute’s library of talking books.

At the Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s Service Centre building on Bayview Avenue in Toronto, texture, colour, acoustics and universal free features are just as important as the concrete, bricks and mortar.

Some of the centre’s innovative accessible features include talking signs and elevators, natural and diffused lighting, varying floor textures, and tactile maps and office signs.

Designed by Mary Jane Finlayson of Architects in Joint Venture, Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners and Sterling Finlayson Architects and constructed by Aecon Buildings, the building is a model to promote accessible design.

The CNIB’s former 1950s facility had become dysfunctional, outdated, and no longer met the CNIB’s program requirements, says its national accessibility coordinator, Leslie MacDonald.

“We wanted the centre to be a showcase ... to show how a building can be made accessible and perhaps to act as incentive to other owners to offer similar features.”

At the same time the centre had to be functional, practical, stay within budget and meet the needs of its visually impaired and deaf-blind client population, she points out.

An intensive amount of planning was invested into the project by the CNIB both before and after the architectural selection, says MacDonald, who worked closely with the architects and who collaborated on the creation of many of the accessible features.

“There was a lot of work selecting the right materials. The main thing is having as much natural light as possible. Eighty per cent of our clients have some remaining sight.”

Those features literally begin at the front door. Tactile tiles embedded in the concrete let users know they’ve approached the entrance, while bright yellow warning stripes on the sliding glass doors act as visual aids. Once through the doors, visitors arrive in a large central hallway that’s wide enough for two people and a guide dog to pass through easily.

While the most of the hallway is white, the edges where it meets the walls are painted black to define the corridor. A lighting system that directs light upwards also helps emphasizes that definition. So also do a number of photographs, which are highlighted with large green backgrounds, says MacDonald.

Tucked away on the ceiling are eye catching devices that look like hockey pucks. They’re actually talking signs that visitors can activate using small electronic receivers.

A tactile map of the floor near the elevator and the front desk help guide visitors, while a dark low-pile carpet denotes the conference room. Easily identifiable angled office and meeting room signs feature large print, raised print and Braille. “The signs are a first in Canada,” says MacDonald.

The hallway layout and most of the features have also been duplicated in the building’s other floors, says MacDonald. “We think we were quite forward thinking in its design.”

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