New St. Paul’s Hospital Chapel

Vancouver, BC, Canada · Completed 2026

Project facts

Client: Providence Health Care
Architects: HDR / Stantec
Design-builder: PCL Constructors Westcoast
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Status: Completed 2026
Our involvement: Structural engineering, detailing, fabrication and installation of the chapel’s glulam frame and connections.

Overview

Set within the atrium of the new St. Paul's Hospital, the chapel uses a closely spaced frame of curved glulam to give a sacred room a clear presence inside a large clinical building. The arches rise from timber columns, cross overhead and gather the space around tall, rounded openings. Their warm, repeated geometry makes the structure both the room's primary support and its architectural expression.

A timber room within the hospital

The chapel was conceived as a visible architectural anchor within the hospital's enclosed atrium: a Catholic sacred space that is open and welcoming to patients, families and staff. Rather than treating timber as a finish applied to the room, the design makes the glulam frame the room. Repeated columns and quarter-circle arches establish a measured rhythm along the perimeter; diagonal arches cross above the nave, and half-round members frame the feature windows. The result is a distinct place of reflection whose structure can be read directly.

View along the completed chapel beneath the curved timber arches

From curved geometry to buildable assemblies

StructureCraft engineered the timber gravity frame and the connections within our scope, then translated the geometry into coordinated three-dimensional models, shop drawings and erection drawings. Curved members were CNC fabricated from glulam and prepared for installation with shop-applied sealer and pre-attached connection components. Constructability and durability were considered with the wider design and construction team so the arches could meet the architectural geometry while fitting accurately against the surrounding building work.

The film below follows the steam-bending process, as the crew removes the heated laminations from the steam box and draws them around the bending jig.

Curved glulam chapel members arranged for connection preparation in the StructureCraft shop.

Steam-bending the laminations: from the steam box to the bending jig in our shop.

Installing the arches in sequence

The completed members were shipped to Vancouver and installed within the partially finished chapel. The sequence had to accommodate the room's walls, tall openings, overhead services and limited interior access. Site photographs from 2026 record the frame taking shape in stages: the perimeter arches, crossing arches and longitudinal ridge members formed the overhead pattern. The exposed timber carries the form of the chapel, with its intersecting arches set beneath the illuminated ceiling.