Project Date: 1998

Damage during the Northridge earthquake and the excessive cost of retrofitting the vintage 1951 complex made necessary a replacement hospital for the UCLA Medical Center. The new high-tech structure, designed to withstand an 8.4 temblor, has its ground breaking slated for 2000 and completion scheduled for 2004.

The Urban Simulation Team @ UCLA worked with UCLA Capital Programs and architects Pei Partnership to build a simulation of the new hospital complex so that it could be analyzed in the context of the UCLA campus. As a result of the modeling effort, significant changes were made to the design of the facility. The main floor and a representative patient floor were modeled to give the design participants a better understanding of the ways that the building would work. The innovative design called for 525 rooms that are both private and large enough to be converted into intensive care units so patients will not have to be moved for required procedures. The patient rooms also feature pull-out sofa beds for guests, and large windows to take advantage of the healing value of natural light. Operating rooms are designed for expansion and reconfiguration according to evolving medical technologies. The construction of the new facility will be phased to minimize the negative impact to medical services and to the rest of the UCLA campus.

UCLA Capital Programs incorporated video captured from a tour of the Urban Simulation Team model into their fundraising efforts. This campaign proved very successful, and in 1998, Jill E. Barad, chairman and chief executive officer of Mattel, Inc., announced a multi-year, $25 million gift to the UCLA Children’s Hospital. In recognition of Mattel's generous donation, the children’s floor of the new facility has been named the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA.