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Creating Moments of Joy at City of Hope Plaza
Learn how CO Architects and EwingCole prioritized a positive, healing environment with an interconnected interior and exterior design flow at City of Hope Plaza, an outpatient cancer treatment facility.
The patient experience at City of Hope Plaza is rooted in moments of joy. The new campus in Duarte, Calif., incorporates touches that buoy the spirits, recognizing that cancer treatment is intensive for all involved. Working in tandem to create a cohesive concept, CO Architects handled exterior planning while EwingCole managed the interior. The result is a unified site that prioritizes the needs of patients, caregivers, and guests.
Gina Chang, principal for CO Architects, and EwingCole’s Richard Shim, associate; Cheryl Hanson, senior designer; and Mary L. Frazier, director of healthcare planning and managing principal, discuss the results of their partnership with i+s.
i+s: How was the vision for this City of Hope Plaza project fashioned together?
Gina Chang: Working with EwingCole was great because there were no egos. Collaboration is about listening to each other because everyone’s good at something that will help make the project a reality.
Richard Shim: To establish the relationship early on, we did an exercise where everyone had to share an individual goal they wanted to accomplish, both personally and professionally. It really level-set expectations by understanding everyone’s objectives.
Mary Frazier: We had such a supportive and interactive relationship with CO. Ideas came from both sides because we took a ‘one team, one unit’ approach.
Chang: Our firms took inspiration from the surrounding geography and conceptualized a river running through the site. Metaphorically, the building is like a big boulder. There are references to river wash throughout the park such as dry creek beds, bridges, and cobblestone. We then used curves to tie the theme between the interior and exterior, evoking the idea of water erosion.
