Today the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in the Willowbrook community of Los Angeles officially opened with a public dedication ceremony led by County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. The 280,000 square foot, 120-bed facility began accepting patients on July 14th.
The project’s design firm, HMC Architects, used evidence-based design lessons in how light, color and access to nature improve both patient healing and recovery and staff performance and morale. They maximized views of both the campuses’ outdoor landscape and the Los Angeles skyline and provided ample daylighting throughout the hospital.
HMC brought in a warm color palette and special finish materials including terrazzo floors in public areas, marble and granite in the chapel, and solid surface plastics to make the hospital feel more welcoming and less institutional for both patients and staff. Further acknowledging the value of aesthetics in positively impacting patient outcomes, the County invested over one million dollars in public art projects throughout the hospital.
“We wanted to create a beautiful, efficient hospital that would be as at home in Beverly Hills as in South Los Angeles,” says Kirk Rose, HMC Architects’ Healthcare Practice Leader. “Too often economically challenged communities receive poor design, and we wanted to prove with this hospital that aesthetically pleasing, effective design doesn’t have to cost a fortune.”
HMC used design to expedite and improve patient care by reorganizing the flow of the emergency department, creating a designated fast track area for low acuity cases and separate, more comfortable bays for higher acuity cases.
The new entrance is the focal point of the building’s façade and is comprised of new metal panels and blue-green glass, renovated precast concrete with tinted glass, and a new a ribbon-like steel and glass canopy. Sustainability was woven throughout the design and is evident in the recycled and renewable material selections, low-flow plumbing fixtures and efficient mechanical systems, putting the hospital on track for LEED Silver certification.
The new community hospital sits directly adjacent to a multi-clinic outpatient center completed in June, 2014. Last month, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center was awarded the Los Angeles Business Council’s Award for Excellence in the Healthcare Architecture Category. Together, this full service medical campus addresses the previously underserved care access needs of the surrounding community.
