A series of projects for Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles demonstrate what can happen when creative design meets a forward-thinking administration. Working with TAYLOR, Kaiser transformed a collection of disparate buildings that spans five city blocks along Hollywood's iconic Sunset Boulevard, unifying their appearance to create a sense of campus.
The showcase project is the Rejuve(n)ate Café-a popular place to eat and a welcome retreat for Kaiser's staff, visitors, and patients. The café's standout Sunset Boulevard façade anchors the campus's new external image, while its interior plan reimagines and redefines the hospital cafeteria.
An exterior transformation
Kaiser's Hollywood neighborhood is undergoing considerable renewal, and although the hospital is located on its most famous street, their institutional looking buildings, acquired or designed to purpose over time, lacked coherency. All the buildings were different colors with the brightly painted parking structures juxtaposed by the dark, unpainted undersides of the parking decks.
The design team developed an exterior plan that unified the visual effect-some façades were sided with green screens, the parking structures and buildings were painted using a newly created master color palette. Landscaping and streetscaping, which is still underway along Sunset, extends the unifying theme. Pedestrian-scale LED lighting on the street lends design excitement, and creates an enjoyable nighttime walking and driving experience.
As much as the color palette, landscaping, and lighting helped to create a sense of place, it was, almost inadvertently, a single design feature-the façade of the Rejuve(n)ate Café-that changed the entire perception of the campus visually. Recognizing that glass looking onto Sunset Boulevard was a key to the Café's interior design, the designers conceived of an impressive combination of linear glass and a dining terrace. But, for the exterior effect they wanted something very playful and challenged the contractors to come up with a cost-effective alternative to all linear glass. The solution was a bold expanse of undulating glass, achieved at only a small cost differential.
The façade was the breakthrough design stroke Kaiser needed to transform their street presence. An identifiable landmark for people traveling along Sunset Boulevard, it has become a bright, visual signal that they have arrived at the Kaiser campus. Saying ‘behind the glass’ has become an easy way of directing people to the Rejuve(n)ate Café and other locations in and near its building.
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