EAST VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER

DESCRIPTIVE DATA

Project No.2:            East Valley Medical Center
Architecture Firm                                                                 of Record:                DMJM Ellerbe Becket HMC
Design Firm:            Ellerbe Becket
Completion Date:      1993  Design
Role of Nominee:      Project Designer

This 250 acute care bed Los Angeles County hospital planned to serve the San Gabriel Valley part of Los Angeles County in a 550,000 square feet facility on a 35 acre site in City of Industry.  Inpatient services to be provided include: adult and pediatric acute care, medical and surgical intensive care, perinatal services, normal newborn nurseries, neonatal intensive care and psychiatric acute care.  East Valley Medical Center is planned as a Level Two Trauma Center to extend trauma care into the eastern part of the county.  The intended focus of the facility is to provide primary care outpatient facilities of the East San Gabriel Valley who would otherwise be required to visit LAC/USC Medical Center.  Outpatient Services will be organized around a residency program in Family Medicine with and Outpatient Care Building designed to accommodate 180,000 annual patient visits.  East Valley Medical Center is planned to function as a community hospital rather than as a tertiary medical center.

This “unbundled designed” facility accommodates a 50% expansion capability for each medical and support departments independently and in paired 25 bed inpatient modules yet required a finished appearance in its initial phase of construction.  The five story broken curved inpatient modules strategically attaches to the three story diagnostic and treatment “hospital chassis” for direct access while the independently sited, 4 story rectangular Outpatient Services and Administration Building connects to the Emergency / Walk In Clinic and the rest of the D&T.  A strong site diagram helps organize the patient approach to the different services and separates the users from the service and emergency traffic.  The broken and incomplete circular forms of the diagnostic & treatment facilities and the impatient wing in contrast to the orthogonal entry and independent Outpatient Facility are inviting to the users and give an appropriate perceived scale to this half-million square foot medical facility.
The County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors elected to not build both the East Valley and High Desert Medical Centers, both highly awarded designs and public approved projects, due to the county budget crises shortfall in 1994. Ultimately, the only county new hospital project to proceed was LA County/ USC,  but at a one-third program reduction and 10 year delay.

AWARDS RECEIVED:      

                   1993 AIA National Honor Award Modern                               Healthcare

PUBLICATIONS:        

                   Modern Healthcare November 1993