City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center
Since its opening in 1913, the main campus of City of Hope in Duarte (California), near Los Angeles has grown significantly. It is now one of the biggest cancer research and treatment groups in the U.S.
Patients in Orange County, Calif. were traveling at least one hour each way to the flagship center (sometimes more depending on traffic). In order to address this issue, the organization wished to bring Cancer Care closer and better serve Orange County’s residents.
It set out to construct a new outpatient cancer centre in Irvine, Calif. – one of the fastest growing cities in the county.
City of Hope selected an existing four-story office building for the project. It then hired Los Angeles-based architecture firm ZGF for the master planning and design.
James Woolum is the lead interior designer and partner of ZGF for this project. He says that converting an office into a cancer center presents its own set of challenges. “Office buildings do not have the height from floor to floor that is needed for medical equipment.”
The project, located on 11 acres of Irvine’s FivePoint Gateway Campus, needed to be connected to the adjacent cancer specialty hospital, which City of Hope will open in 2025.
The project team had to consider future connections with the specialty hospital next door, in addition to existing challenges. The design team took inspiration from the landscape and hospitality environments around it to create a calm space that would inspire healing and hope.
