Kaiser Permanente Opens New Medical Office Building in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Kaiser Permanente’s new state-of-the-art medical office building in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw community of Los Angeles opened on Sept. 7. The facility will offer a full range of primary care and specialty care services, and will incorporate innovative and advanced health care technology and green design elements, with the expectation of LEED Gold certification. There will be a ribbon-cutting for the new facility on Sept. 13.

The four-story 100,000-square-foot medical building broke ground in October 2015 and had a budget of $90 million. Global architecture firm HOK was the architect on the project, with Turner Construction in Los Angeles as the general contractor. The facility will treat more than 50,000 Kaiser Permanente members in the community with 60 clinical providers, and will offer services that include diagnostic imaging, family medicine, health education classes, gynecology, opthamology, optometry and pediatrics.

Some features of the new building that will earn it LEED Gold certification include 35 percent water savings below the LEED baseline, 50 percent reduction in irrigation water use as compared with typical landscape design, a photovoltaic roof canopy and all stormwater will be treated and infiltrated on site. High efficiency condensing domestic water heaters will create savings for the facility as well as ultra low-flow water fixtures, including toilets and sinks.

Ultra-high efficiency rooftop variable volume HVAC units were installed, including variable volume fans, modulating capacity, ultra-high efficiency compressors, airside economizers for free cooling and variable volume zone temperature control for fan energy savings. There will be preferred parking for carpooling and low-emitting vehicles as well as bike storage for all occupants, plus showers for staff.

Recycled content and low-emitting materials were used as much as possible in the construction of the new facility as well as the use of Forest Stewardship Council wood. Additionally, the building was designed to promote interaction with the community, with an outdoor landscape that includes a 2.5-mile walking path, a large grassy area and outdoor exercise equipment, open to the public.

“We are very excited to invest in the health and well-being of this community and bring world-class health care and other health amenities to our members in the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw neighborhood,” said Georgina Garcia, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center in a statement.