Medical Center’s Pediatric Patients Create New Patient Tower With Legos

TORRANCE, Calif. –– Pediatric Burn Unit patients at Torrance Memorial Medical Center recently teamed with workers from McCarthy Building Companies Inc. to create mini renditions of the new hospital patient tower using Legos, and to mark the tower’s final concrete pour. The event took place in view of the project site where construction of the medical center’s 398,350-square-foot patient tower is underway.

Among the patients participating was 5-year-old Robert Jones, who has been undergoing treatment for burn injuries at Torrance Memorial Medical Center. A former burn patient, Litzy Santos, 6, and her sister Karime also participated in the mini building project.

McCarthy workers joined the patients, donning construction gear and hard hats, to help with their building efforts. The workers invited the patients to give the command via two-way radio to complete the final concrete pour on the seventh-story deck — the top level of the new patient tower. McCarthy donated several sets of Legos to the Pediatric Unit to help keep young patients entertained during their hospitalization.

McCarthy Building Companies is serving as general contractor for the $450 million patient tower project, which is more than half-way finished. At its peak, there will be approximately 500 construction workers on site.

The project entails construction of a seven level, 398,350-square-foot patient tower as well as a basement that will house a central utility plant and a tunnel connecting the existing hospital to the new facility. Twelve new elevator systems and two exit stairs will be installed, and a 2,770-square-foot emergency generator building along with underground fuel oil storage tanks will be constructed on site. Before construction could begin, McCarthy re-routed existing underground utilities servicing the tower around the new tower’s footprint. A new entrance to the existing facility was also built to allow for patient access from a new direction while the tower is under construction.

Designed by HMC Architects, the tower will be the new front door of the medical center, and the centerpiece of the campus. Being built with a steel frame atop a mat foundation, the tower’s exterior skin will be a combination of metal panel, precast concrete, plaster, and curtain wall. The combination of skin materials for the tower’s façade not only responds to the correct solar orientation to reduce energy consumption, but it also gives the tower a contemporary and elegant aesthetic.

The Burn Unit will relocate to the new patient tower once the new tower opens in spring 2015.