A new medical building with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council was recently added to the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.
The three-story, 50,000-square-foot building, located at 1223 16th St., houses eight operating rooms for outpatient surgery, a linear accelerator used for radiation treatment, a laboratory and pharmacy. The building also contains clinical offices for the Food & Drug Allergy Care Center, Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, in addition to departments like sleep medicine and nephrology.
In addition to its functional capabilities, the building was also noted for its green features, like its efficient water systems, construction with recycled and locally-sourced materials and a rooftop photovoltaic system that provides about 15 percent of the building’s energy needs.
This is the first structure in the UCLA Health System with LEED Gold recognition, hospital officials said.
Architects relied on modernist design for the building’s atrium and material choices, which include glass, steel, concrete and bamboo.
The structure also contains a fully automated parking system, which parks and retrieves cars not unlike a giant vending machine. Visitors pull into one of six parking platforms, exit their cars and the system automatically places the car into a space specific to its size. When leaving, visitors can swipe their parking ticket and wait until their car is retrieved.
This system can accommodate 385 cars with a 50 percent smaller footprint than that of conventional garages.
