Addition to USC / Norris Cancer Center Opens

An eight-story addition to the USC / Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, which integrates the research and clinical components of the facility, has opened in Boyle Heights.

The Dr. Norman Topping Tower was designed to house researchers, physicians and cancer prevention specialists under one roof to collaborate on scientific findings and accelerate the communication of sometimes-lifesaving information.

About 450 employees, mainly from the five medical research buildings on the USC Health Sciences Campus, will occupy the 150,000-square-foot building by the end of April. The tower provides 25 new cancer research labs, and with expanded outpatient facilities, the new building is expected to triple the center’s outpatient load to 300 daily.

Amenities include a 10,000-square-foot meditation garden to provide a tranquil environment for patients, their families and friends. It was created by Topher Delaney, a breast cancer survivor who has devoted her life to designing meditation gardens around the country.

The tower, connected to the Norris center on Eastlake Avenue, is on a 20,000-square-foot area once occupied by a maintenance building and parking lot. Topping is a USC chancellor emeritus, physician and scholar who has helped raise more than $8 million for the center.