Monday, 7/14/97 UCLA plans for new med center FUNDRAISING:
Architect Pei to design facility; $418 million must be raised
By Dawnya Pring Daily Bruin Contributor World-renowned architect
I.M. Pei sat alone in an empty lot on Wilshire for six hours in the
mid-day sun to "feel" the space. Only after meditating did he begin
to work his magic on the design of the Creative Artist Agency
building now occupying the busy corner. Pei is now on his second
visit to the UCLA campus. He has been chosen to work an
architectural miracle on south campus, giving it a much needed and
very expensive face lift. "South campus is confused as a group of
buildings and north campus is a beautiful group of buildings and we
need to blend them," commented Pei, whose works include some of the
major landmarks of the 20th century. The proposed project will be
UCLA’s largest-ever construction endeavor, a combined 500-bed
hospital and medical research center. Before these grand plans
materialize two important issues need to be resolved: an
architectural plan must be designed and $418 million needs to be
raised. Pei who built the new entrance to the Louvre in Paris and
the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland promises to deliver his
master design plan by August. Michael Ovitz, better known as
ex-Disney CEO than UCLA alumnus, has the daunting task of raising
the $418 million needed to reach the $1.1 billion price tag.
Although the cost for what some might deem a glorified
beautification project seems high, according to UCLA officials, the
project is imperative. The effort takes on added urgency because
the functional status of the medical center might be in jeopardy if
a major trembler struck Los Angeles. A university cost-benefit
analysis concluded that upgrading the hospital to current seismic
codes would cost more than $2 billion and take double the amount of
time than building new facilities. "We’ll be going to everybody,
whether they can contribute $10 or $10 million," Ovitz said. Ovitz
and his wife Judy, also a UCLA alumna, contributed $25 million of
personal funds to the new medical center. The project met a giant
shortfall when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
declined to grant UCLA’s request for $1 billion. About half of the
needed funds have been raised, with the lion’s share coming in the
form of a $432-million FEMA grant. State funds account for an
additional $44 million, with another $100 million coming from
private donations. The goal of the new facility is to combine the
most advanced medical technology with an aesthetically pleasing
environment — and that’s where Pei comes in. "It has to be a place
where people get well quickly and can recover," Pei said. "The
environment has to be cheerful, not depressed. It should bring in
sunlight and let you see nature." Pei plans to work closely with
landscape designers to integrate the structure into a park-like
setting. In order to accommodate more garden space, he plans to
build underground parking structures. Somehow Pei’s vision of an
ideal hospital, one conducive to healing and without the
conventional long white corridors of closed doors, will have to
mesh with UCLA’s need for a large state-of-the-art medical
facility. "You have to think about a hospital as serving someone
who is not well. Therefore, I think the environment that you design
for has to be a pleasant place to be," Pei said. "A hospital,
regardless how big it is, should not appear to be big." In order to
ensure that the new hospital will be a cutting-edge nationally
recognized health care facility, design firms have been made an
integral part of the planning process. The new medical center will
take into account the changes that have taken place in medicine
over the last 40 years when some of the buildings marked for
destruction were designed and built. For example, preliminary plans
call for 160 fewer beds in the new hospital, but more space per bed
and entirely private rooms. Research facilities will also be
expanded by 25 percent to keep the university at the forefront in
medical research, university officials said. "For us to lead the
way in medicine in the new millennium, we are redesigning the
traditional ways of providing health care services, conducting
cutting-edge research and educating future physicians," said Dr.
Gerald S. Levy, provost for the medical sciences and dean of the
UCLA School of Medicine. "I.M. Pei is the design architect we’ve
chosen to help match this vision to our hospital in ways that will
make it extremely functional, remarkably creative and seismically
safer," Levey said. UCLA’s School of Medicine has long been
considered one of the best in the country, recently voted "Best in
the West" and fourth "Best Hospital in the United States" by U.S.
News and World Report. Medical school officials argue that the
major overhaul is necessary in order for the school to surpass or
maintain its excellent reputation. "UCLA’s medical facilities are a
world-class operation and need to remain that way," said Chancellor
Albert Carnesale. "I’m honored that, among my first duties at
UCLA," Carnesale said, "will be to assist in the completion of a
project that will positively affect patients and health
practitioners in Southern California well into the new millennium."
Related Site: UCLA Medical Center