3 minute read
Better by Design
Inside the architectural triumph that is UC San Diego’s new Jacobs Medical Center.
By Sarah Daoust
The Jacobs Medical Center’s interior and exterior architecture is an awe-inspiring marriage of cutting-edge technology and eye-popping design.
The 10-story tower’s glass facade and unique curvilinear shape is truly striking.
Jacob Medical Center’s tranquil garden courtyard.
Airy, elegant main lobby.
An ultra-mod conference room.
Proudly commanding a prime piece of real estate perched above Interstate 5 in La Jolla, UC San Diego’s majestic, 10-story, glass tower looks like a billion bucks … which just so happens to be the price tag to build this breathtaking design masterpiece. Welcome to the Jacobs Medical Center, a state-of-the-art campus unlike any other in the world. The project already has won numerous prominent design awards, among them: the American Institute of Architects’ prestigious Architecture for Health Award—one of just seven recipients nationwide to be honored.
Inside, the advanced medical center (named in honor of a $75 million donation by Joan and Irwin Jacobs) is designed as three hospitals in one, with a focus on cancer care, highrisk obstetrics and neonatal care, cardiac rehabilitation and specialty surgery. The facts and figures are impressive—10 levels (plus two underground floors) spanning 509,500 square feet; 245 patient beds; multiple outdoor “sky gardens,” terraces and courtyards; a 150-piece “therapeutic art” collection; a rooftop helicopter pad; and a low-carbon footprint equivalent to silver LEED certification. It’s the product of more than eight years of design and development, and four-plus years of construction. The center also brings several medical firsts to San Diego—including the ability to perform MRIs during brain surgeries; and an entire floor that is pressurized to protect patients with weakened immune systems. And these are just a few fun facts.
Health care design, at its finest, helps to heal. CannonDesign (cannondesign.com), the project’s architecture firm, was tasked with bringing its immense mission—“transform people, place and process”—to fruition. “The design is the intersection of patient care, technology and environment—aimed at truly putting patients first,” explains Carlos Amato, the Los Angeles health practice leader for CannonDesign.
This means an abundance of natural light and floor-to-ceiling windows, including patient rooms and even windows in surgery rooms. A garden-inspired design brings the outdoors in and vice versa with the center’s sky gardens—elevated, tranquil respites for patients, staff and families to take in fresh air and sweeping views of the rolling La Jolla landscape. Patient rooms look and feel more like that of a resort guest room than a hospital room—outfitted with bedside iPads that allow patients to control the environment of the room, and luxe amenities that lend to world-class clinical care.
But it’s the exterior geometry of the building (which connects to Thornton Hospital and is located adjacent to a new research facility) in particular that stuns. Its rolling, fluid, curvilinear shape channels that of a glass sculpture that sparkles in the sun yet minimizes solar glare—rendering it somewhat ambiguous, even mysterious. If not for the massive “UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center” signage emblazoned on it, one might not even know right away that it’s a hospital. And that’s the idea.
“It’s not just a building; it’s a piece of architecture,” says Mehrdad Yazdani, director of Yazdani Studio of Cannon- Design. “Because hospitals are essential buildings that deal with life and death, you can get caught up in the functionality of the building and lose the humanistic aspects. But the design truly can contribute to the healing process.”
Adds Amato, “One of the coolest things I’ve heard: ‘The building helps people heal faster.’ Design really can impact patient outcomes and help in getting people back to better health and well-being.”
