Design goals focused on a state-of-the-art, patient-friendly healing environment for a public healthcare agency. This new Ambulatory Care Center provides specialty clinics comprising a wide range of services. Because of the diversity of services offered, each clinic is laid out as a typical module that can change in use from day to day, or even morning to afternoon, depending on which clinic is in operation. In addition, the facility houses major support services for ambulatory care, including Diagnostic Imaging, Outpatient Pharmacy, Satellite Lab, and Cardiopulmonary

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The project also includes a Cancer Center on the ground floor, with a private garden offering the option to receive chemotherapy in an outdoor setting. Gardens are a primary focus for the architectural layout of the three-story addition to the medical campus, offering an oasis of green landscaping and quiet water pools adjacent to an existing grove of redwood trees.

Breaking the program into two building wings allowed more opportunity for natural light to enter the clinics and reinforced wayfinding through a public corridor that always looks out onto the garden. The entry core is housed in a cylinder located equidistant from all clinic waiting rooms, minimizing patients’ walking distances. The glazed public corridor leads to waiting rooms designed as glass-enclosed porches overlooking the garden.

Project category: New construction (completed February 2003)

Chief administrator: Steve Tremain, MD, Medical Director, (925) 370-5122

Firm: Anshen+Allen, (415) 882-9500

Design team: Roger Swanson, AIA, ACHA, Principal-in-Charge; Bill Weber, AIA, Associate Principal; Sharon Woodworth, AIA, Senior Associate; Andy Adams, Associate; Bo Bi, AIA, Senior Associate

Photography: Robert Canfield, Photographer

Total building area (GSF): 65,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $243

Total cost (excluding land): $15,800,000