Cedars-Sinai Imaging Center Going Up

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has started construction of the center’s new S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center, a 121,000-square-foot medical imaging facility at San Vicente Boulevard and Gracie Allen Drive on the medical center’s campus in Los Angeles. Newport Beach-based McCarthy Building Cos. is general contractor for the $34-million project.

Construction on the new imaging center is slated to be completed in early 2002. The project is being built on what is “a very tight urban site,” said to Larry Colvin, director of facilities planning, design and construction at Cedars-Sinai. The medical center also named McCarthy for construction preparation services on the $69-million North Care Tower scheduled to get underway in 2002 and to be completed in late 2004 or early 2005.

The new imaging center will house labs for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine, PET scans and other state-of-the-art equipment and techniques, the medical center said.

Funding for the center includes a $7.5-million donation from the S. Mark Taper Foundation, the largest donor contribution ever received at Cedars-Sinai, according to the hospital. The foundation is named for the late S. Mark Taper, a Los Angeles financier and philanthropist.

Existing imaging facilities at Cedars-Sinai are housed in modular buildings near the main hospital. McCarthy’s work on the new imaging center will include renovations on approximately 65,000 square feet on three floors in the main hospital to house imaging services, plus the construction of an adjacent 65,000-square-foot, four-story addition for other imaging facilities.

The North Care Tower will include eight levels above ground and one below and will house a new emergency department, critical care and rehabilitation services and a transitional care unit. A multilevel bridge is to connect the tower with the main hospital building.

The architect for the imaging center renovations and additions is RBB Architects Inc. in Los Angeles. Langdon Wilson, also based in Los Angeles, is architect for the North Care Tower. Turner/CM of Los Angeles is the program manager for the imaging center and the North Care Tower.