Â鶹AV

Five-year study will use MUHC as test case for how mega-projects impact urban life

Â鶹AV urban planning professor Lisa Bornstein has been awarded a five-year, one-million-dollar grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to examine the process of integrating the new MUHC hospital redevelopment project into the surrounding community.

Prof. Bornstein, a Berkeley-educated PhD and expert in international development planning, economic development and community planning, will lead an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Â鶹AV, Concordia, UQAM, Université de Montréal and INRS-Urbanisation, Culture et Societé.

"In some ways, the project itself will end up reflecting the consultation process because we come from diverse disciplines, architecture, political science, psychiatry and urban planning, and we'll be bringing that to the dynamic among the vested interests in this process," said Bornstein. "Working closely with community groups, government and developers – as well as medical professionals and academics – is bound to present challenges and chances for all of us to learn in unexpected ways. Ideally, what we go through over the next five years will serve as an invaluable test case for similar projects worldwide in the future."

The project, Making Mega-projects Work for Communities, will explore the conditions in which such large-scale urban redevelopment projects can contribute to the building of stable, inclusive and healthy neighbourhoods. Bornstein and her colleagues will be working with eight local community groups and three Centres de santé (CSSSs) in the area, as well as with the MUHC leadership, all of whom endorsed the project. The community groups include Solidarité Saint-Henri, Bâtir son quartier, Regroupement pour la relance économique et social du sud-ouest (RESO), Notre-Dame-de-Grace Community Council, CDEC Côte-des-Neige/Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal Urban Community Sustainment, the Centre de gestion des déplacements de Côte-des-Neige, the Contactivity Centre and the Westmount Municipal Association.

"We're very excited at the prospect of making the MUHC redevelopment project not only a model for how health care should be delivered in the 21st century but of respecting the needs of those citizens most affected by that delivery, of the wider community and of the environment," said Dr. Arthur T. Porter, MUHC director general and CEO. "Lisa Bornstein is leading an exceptional team and we're proud to be a part of it."

The SSHRC award was granted through the agency's Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) program.