What was once a lively building has been dark, empty and dormant for the past two years.
But recent plans for renovation provide a promise to breathe new life into the old UCLA Medical Center.
Deemed unsafe to withstand the force of an earthquake following the Northridge earthquake of 1994, the old medical building sustained damages that accelerated the efforts of UCLA authorities to evaluate and attempt to improve the building’s safety, said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor for finance, budget and capital programs.
Though renovation plans have been delayed for several years due to state funding issues, the State Assembly and Senate recently approved $129 million to finally jump-start the building’s transition into brand-new, academic research space.
“The building is 444,000 square feet ““ one of the largest buildings to make safe for students and faculty,” Olsen said. “It turns out that the way the original hospital was constructed will lend itself well to laboratory use.”
While many students on campus may have experienced firsthand the noise and bustle that comes from ongoing construction at UCLA, Olsen added since this project doesn’t involve demolishing the building to prepare a new construction site, no one from the outside will be able to tell that the renovation is taking place.
Olsen said when the safety of the building was being evaluated following the 1994 earthquake, authorities determined that it would be too disruptive to the hospital and not very cost-effective to attempt to improve the seismic safety of the building as it stood. Instead, the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was built.
However, the recent approval of funds means the vacant building can now serve the UCLA community in a new way by providing research space primarily for the David Geffen School of Medicine, largely serving graduate students, he added.
While the building’s transition in to a research area will primarily affect those who are involved in the health sciences, its seismic safety improvements ensure the safety of all who enter.
“The primary objective of the project is to make it earthquake safe,” Olsen said.
Other vital changes will include replacing and upgrading utilities and ventilation systems, and installing new interior walls, lab benches and laboratory equipment.
Laboratories in the present medical center are relatively small, while the newer buildings are set up as large, open labs that encourage collaboration and the sharing of techniques among researchers and students, said Dr. Alan Robinson, associate vice chancellor of medical sciences and executive associate dean of the school of medicine.
“What we will do in the renovation of the old hospital is completely (clear out) the area and build open laboratories to create a completely different kind of space,” Robinson said.
“We won’t close the laboratories where people are now, so there will be no downtime for research.”
Dr. Leonard Rome, senior associate dean of research at the David Geffen School of Medicine, has previously been involved with the construction of other research buildings on campus, and he said the equipment inserted into the new building will be tailored to the type of research that will be conducted.
The building will be used for transitional research, Rome said ““ the transfer of basic research from the laboratory to the clinic, with the development of new drugs, devices and methods of treating disease.
While those involved with the planning of the project are still awaiting state approval of the budget plans, interior demolition activity has begun, Olsen said.
He added that the project is very advanced in its planning and that according to the current project schedule, construction will begin early in the summer of 2011.