Neurosurgery news

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 2/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Acknowledging the yin and yang of health care, Los Angeles architects SPF:a designed the California Spine Institute, Medical Center, to address the needs of modern medicine while accommodating aspects of holistic healing practiced by the center's neurosurgeon founder, Dr. John C. Chiu. Chiu's $6 million facility for minimally invasive surgery—a 29,000-square-foot, two-story, all-inclusive installation—sits on 2 acres adjacent to private wetlands in Newbury Park.

The client's brief covered operating rooms and offices for a medical and administrative staff of 50. He also requested an outdoor meditation garden and an indoor sports-rehabilitation area with a pool for hydrotherapy. Passionate about education, he furthermore asked for a conference room and a wellness center, which will eventually house anatomical models and computers to teach patients and families about conditions and procedures. (The facility handles the gamut of spinal conditions, from minor aches to severe injuries and paralysis.)

SPF:a's interior is organized, appropriately enough, along a central spine. On the first floor, this axis functions as a reception area. To one side lies physical therapy's eye-catching pool, visible from the main entry. Opposite are the wellness center and imaging suite.

A ribbonlike stairway of powder-coated and perforated steel draws visitors to the upper floor, where Venetian-plaster walls and sleek sofas transform part of the spine into a waiting area. The spine terminates in a glass-fronted conference room that seems to float free of the building's structure. Nearby are offices, an X-ray unit, and operating, prep, and recovery rooms. Thanks to what principal Jeffrey Stenfors calls a "rigorous order of skylights," the whole upstairs profits from Southern California's prime asset.

Distinguished by abundant apertures and a sinuous shape, SPF:a's building is clad in concrete fabricated to resemble stone. A tinted-concrete fountain stands by the main entry. Passing close to this striking form and hearing the falling water should, Stenfors and Chiu hope, soothe away some of the fear factor.

Clockwise from top: The design for the California Spine Institute, Medical Center, in Newbury Park includes a tinted-concrete fountain at the main entry. A glass-fronted conference room juts out from a volume clad in concrete made to look like stone. In the waiting area, aluminum reveals detail Venetian-plaster walls; seating is by Wolfgang C.R. Mezger.

TINTED CONCRETE (EXTERIOR): L.M. SCOFIELD COMPANY. STONE: CULTURED STONE CORPORATION. SEATING (WAITING AREA): DAVIS FURNITURE. FLUORESCENT FIXTURES: FOCAL POINT. PENDANTS: LOUIS POULSEN LIGHTING. CARPET: DESIGNWEAVE. GENERAL CONTRACTORS: MATRIX CONTRACTING CORPORATION (INTERIOR); WESELY-THOMAS ENTERPRISES (EXTERIOR).