Architects finalize plans for new medical center

Wednesday, January 20, 1999

Architects finalize plans for new medical center

HOSPITAL: Damage done by Northridge earthquake brought need for
facilities

By Kiyoshi Tomono

Daily Bruin Contributor

After five years of designing, evaluating and raising funds,
plans for the new $1.3 billion hospital and research complex were
released Tuesday.

The proposed hospital, designed by a team led by renowned
architect I.M. Pei, will open its doors in Spring of 2004,
replacing the current Medical Center, which suffered structural
damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Funding for this facility, the largest building ever constructed
by the University of California, came from a variety of sources
including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA
provided $432 million and Michael and Judy Ovitz donated $25
million. Mattel Inc. also donated $25 million, in addition to three
anonymous gifts totaling $23.5 million.

The new 10-story building will house the UCLA Medical Center,
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital and Mattel Children’s Hospital.

The facility will provide medical care well into the next
millennium with technological advances and a building design aimed
at meeting California’s seismic safety standards for the year
2008.

In light of these safety standards, the new hospital will be
capable of withstanding an 8.4 earthquake on the Richter scale.

"This hospital was built such that, whatever the development,
the hospital will have the flexibility to deal with those
advances," said Gerald Levey, dean of the school of medicine.

"The hospital can accommodate the latest in technology and will
be an environment that is good for both our patients and our
staff," he said.

Among the hospital’s innovations are modular operating rooms
that can be configured to meet the demands of expanding medical
technology. In addition, the hospital’s 525 private patient rooms
can be converted to accommodate the needs of an intensive care
patients.

Trauma elevators the size of rooms are designed to carry
patients and necessary medical equipment from the roof-top
helicopter landing pad to the ground-level trauma department. Also,
bedside computers and other electronic systems were added to the
hospital’s design to facilitate a "paperless hospital," Levey
said.

According to Levey and Pei, choosing the design of the new
hospital was one of their most difficult tasks because they wanted
to create a functional building without a sterile feel.

"The new hospital will provide spirituality and not an
institutional feel," said Levey. "It emphasizes natural light,
spaciousness and gardens such that it loses that formidable
feel."

"A hospital should be a physical entity that should do something
special not only for the patient, but for the patient’s family as
well," Pei said. "I emphasized natural light and public spaces
because I feel both will accelerate the healing process."

Upon the facility’s completion, tentative plans have been made
to level the Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Reed Neurological
Research Center in order to erect three new buildings to house the
medical school.

Lot 14 is slated for demolition this year, while groundbreaking
ceremonies are scheduled for January of 2000, said Levey.

Despite student concern regarding potential lack of parking,
Chancellor Albert Carnesale argued that the demolition of Lot 14
will not adversely affect students.

"We have expanded parking in structure 4 and built new parking
under the Intramural Field, actually making more parking spaces
than will be demolished in structure 14," said Carnesale.

"Students will not be adversely affected as a result of the
demolition of structure 14."

Issues of parking and monetary donations, however, are of little
significance to patients.

"This hospital is very important to me," said liver transplant
patient Ilene Feder Korney.

Korney indicated that a few weeks ago, medical center officials
contacted her to make a donation.

"I told them I’d give them $25 and that, while it was not as
much as Michael Ovitz gave, it was all I could afford," Korney
said. "That is how important this hospital is to me."(Above)
Architect I.M. Pei, who designed the new medical center, spoke at
the dedication ceremony yesterday morning.

(Left) Guests at the dedication ceremony for the new UCLA
Medical Center facility view the large model on display of the
future complex.

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