Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) Plans a Complete Campus Transformation Over the Coming Decades

Source: Daily Hive, Shape Your City website

If the long-term plan moves ahead as envisioned, the Vancouver General Hospital campus will look almost unrecognizable 30 years from now. Nearly the entire 34-acre site would be rebuilt, with most of today’s familiar hospital buildings demolished and replaced by significantly taller and wider structures designed for a modern, expanded healthcare system.

Among the buildings slated for eventual removal are the entire Jim Pattison Pavilion, including its landmark 299-foot tower completed in 1991, as well as the Leon Blackmore Pavilion. In total, at least 12 existing buildings would be taken down over multiple decades as redevelopment progresses.

A campus-wide master plan now on the table

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has submitted a rezoning application that would establish a comprehensive master plan guiding the future evolution of British Columbia’s largest and most complex hospital. Vancouver General Hospital plays a critical provincial role, delivering highly specialized care to the most seriously ill patients from across B.C.

Public consultation on the proposal is expected to begin in February 2026. While a pre-application consultation took place last fall, the full details of the health authority’s long-range plan have only now been released.

It is important to distinguish this application from a separate rezoning approved by Vancouver City Council last week. That smaller proposal, led by the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, allows for two towers totaling 885,000 square feet of non-acute healthcare uses on a 1.4-acre site at the southwest corner of the campus. By contrast, the health authority’s master plan envisions more than 3.2 million square feet of new hospital space focused primarily on acute care, with total campus floor area, including retained buildings, ranging from about 2.9 million square feet in early phases to more than 4.5 million square feet by the final phase. The foundation’s project is not included in these figures, though its space would be leased by the health authority once completed.

Why the expansion is needed

At the heart of the master plan is an acknowledgment that VGH must grow and modernize to keep pace with mounting pressures. These include rapid population growth within the Broadway Plan area, the City of Vancouver, and the wider Metro Vancouver region; a rapidly aging population; rising demand for emergency and specialized care; and hospital facilities that, in some cases, date back to the 1950s and 1960s.

According to the application, many existing buildings are now considered “operationally obsolete,” as they no longer meet contemporary standards for hospital design or efficient care delivery. Bed shortages already create daily challenges, particularly when patients cannot be admitted from the emergency department in a timely manner.

Demand projections show VGH could require 1,468 patient beds as early as 2035 — up from the current 1,063. Roughly 80 per cent of today’s inpatient beds are housed in buildings constructed between 1953 and 1989. Emergency department visits are also expected to climb sharply, from an average of 267 daily visits in 2023 to 388 by 2045. While the master plan does not specify a final bed count, the scale of redevelopment suggests a substantial increase is likely over time, supported by more efficient layouts and larger floor plates designed for modern hospital operations.

Today, nearly 10,000 people work on the campus, a number expected to rise significantly as services expand. VGH is also a major teaching and research hospital affiliated with the University of British Columbia. The master plan has been designed by Kasian Architecture, with landscape architecture by Durante Kreuk.

Ten phases, carefully sequenced

Redeveloping a fully operational, provincial-scale hospital is compared in the application to a carefully choreographed game of musical chairs. New space must always be built and brought online before existing buildings can be taken out of service, ensuring patient care and critical operations are never disrupted.

Phase 1 would see the demolition of the Laundry Building, Research Pavilion, and VGH Cycling Centre near the campus core, with their functions relocated elsewhere. This clears the way for Phase 2: construction of a new 11-storey hospital building featuring inpatient care, a significantly expanded emergency department, underground parking, and a second rooftop heliport. This building could be delivered in the early 2030s.

Subsequent phases include the demolition of the historic Heather Pavilion and several surrounding structures, followed by temporary landscaped open space and surface parking while future buildings are prepared. Although the Heather Pavilion has recognized heritage value, the application argues that preservation would be extremely costly and would complicate the multi-phase redevelopment strategy. Demolishing it would require reversing a 2002 legal agreement that committed the health authority to revitalizing the building — a decision that has long been contentious.

Later phases introduce multiple large acute-care buildings along West 12th Avenue, a new emergency department entrance, expanded underground parking, a campus-wide energy centre, and major logistics facilities. Eventually, the entire Jim Pattison Pavilion would be demolished, with its site reserved as interim open space for future expansion beyond the scope of the current plan. By the time the build-out is complete, total investment is expected to reach tens of billions of dollars.

Building heights would reach up to 24 storeys, exceeding the height of the existing Jim Pattison tower. Heights are constrained by protected mountain view corridors from Queen Elizabeth Park and by helicopter flight paths serving both VGH and BC Children’s Hospital.

Streets, access, and public space

As redevelopment progresses, several newer buildings are expected to remain, including the Jack Bell Research Centre, Gordon & Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre, Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, Robert Ho Research Centre, and Segal & Family Health Centre. The long-standing strategy of using vacant land for interim uses, such as tennis courts in the past, continues in the proposed plan.

While an earlier master plan envisioned a large permanent public park anchored by a restored Heather Pavilion, the current proposal replaces this idea with a network of smaller green spaces, landscaped courtyards, and rooftop outdoor areas for patients and staff. All phases carefully integrate with VGH’s extensive underground service tunnel system, which connects 16 buildings and supports essential hospital operations.

The plan introduces new internal roads, a north-south pedestrian-only Willow Street greenway, and an east-west pedestrian connection roughly aligned with West 11th Avenue. Strong emphasis is placed on improving access to the future VGH-Oak SkyTrain station on the Millennium Line Broadway Extension, scheduled to open in 2027, with provisions for a possible future underground hospital entrance.

Concerns have been raised, however, about elements of the City’s Broadway Plan that propose car-free sections of Heather Street and Laurel Street near the campus. Given VGH’s role as a regional emergency hub, the application suggests these policies may need adjustment. Instead, the health authority proposes widening Heather Street to better accommodate vehicle traffic, emergency access, pedestrian sidewalks, and protected bike lanes.

Future condition:

What happens next

In summer 2026, Vancouver City Council is expected to consider an interim rezoning to enable the first two phases, including construction of the new 11-storey emergency and inpatient building. Amendments to the Broadway Plan may also be reviewed to better align city policy with the hospital’s expansion needs.

The full campus-wide rezoning application is expected to go to public hearing after the October 2026 civic election, where the next City Council will ultimately decide the future framework for Vancouver General Hospital’s transformation.

Key takeaways

• VGH is planning a multi-decade, campus-wide rebuild to modernize care and expand capacity.
• At least 12 major buildings would be demolished and replaced through 10 carefully sequenced phases.
• The plan responds to aging facilities, bed shortages, and rising regional demand.
• Major changes to streets, access, and public space are proposed to support hospital operations.
• Council decisions in 2026 and beyond will shape how, and how quickly, the transformation proceeds.

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