City of Hope O.C. offers sneak peek at coming Irvine cancer hospital

City of Hope Orange County is getting closer to doubling down on cancer care in Irvine.

After opening the Lennar Foundation Cancer Center last August, construction is ongoing in an adjacent area to the immediate north. A six-story cancer hospital that will be connected to the center — touted as the county’s only specialty cancer hospital exclusively focused on treating and curing cancer — is slated to open in 2025.

City of Hope is investing more than $1.5 billion into the campus as a whole.

City of Hope officials hosted a media tour of a “mock up” of the hospital on Tuesday morning. The built-to-scale replica was set up in the first floor of the parking garage on campus by Hensel Phelps, the company contracted to build the hospital.

Cynthia Powers, right, the vice president and associate chief nursing officer for City of Hope Orange County, speaks to members of the media during a tour Tuesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, who joined the tour, said she thinks it’s a great fit.

“It’s such an honor to have City of Hope here in the city of Irvine providing the quality care, the unique services that the City of Hope is offering,” Khan said. “I think that’s something that’s very special. Being in Irvine, the hub of innovation, it seems like the perfect match to have City of Hope here.”

The hospital will have a front entrance, like the cancer center does, but City of Hope Orange County President Annette Walker said the buildings also will be interconnected with just 30 inches between them.

“It’s not going to feel like a gap,” she said. “It’s one stride ... The buildings were designed to operate like one facility. For instance, you saw a laboratory here, but there’s several other laboratories in the cancer center that will support the hospital. We wanted to make the most efficient use of the resources and real estate that we have here. It’s going to feel like one building when it’s finished.”

The blood bank and offices, made from cardboard and temporary walls, are part of the built-to-scale replica of the City of Hope Orange County’s new specialty cancer hospital in Irvine on Tuesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

The cancer center, hospital and City of Hope Orange County’s four regional clinics — including two in Newport Beach and one in Huntington Beach — will combine to create the county’s largest network exclusively dedicated to cancer treatment and cures.

Cynthia Powers, City of Hope Orange County’s vice president and associate chief nursing officer, led the tour. It touched on areas of the hospital like the care team station, pharmacy, laboratory, imaging suites and patient rooms.

The specialty cancer hospital will contain 73 beds and occupy 160,000 square feet. Like the cancer center, it will be built employing feng shui design principles.

A full-scale replica of a patient room made from cardboard and temporary walls, at City of Hope Orange County in Irvine.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Patients, physicians, staff and community members will be able to walk through the mock design and provide feedback before it is finalized, Walker said.

There are already some subtle touches. In the care team station, for example, there are low counter tops.

“Thinking about the patient experience, and the family experience, we all want to be acknowledged,” Powers said. “We’ve built troughs in the workstations, so that the monitors actually drop into the trough. I can see you when you’re coming off the elevator, coming down the hallway. I’m able to speak to you and acknowledge your presence, and not hide behind a monitor.”

Annette Walker, the President of City of Hope Orange County, speaks to members of the media during a tour of a built-to-scale replica on Tuesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Bonnie Nolan of Newport Beach was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2020. After receiving a stem cell transfer at City of Hope’s Duarte location that August, the 57-year-old said she is grateful for the options closer to home.

As she continues her cancer fight, she goes to the City of Hope Newport Beach Fashion Island location for what she calls her “chemo cocktails” with Dr. Amrita Krishnan. But she has been to the City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center for other tests, including mammograms, an echocardiogram and a colonoscopy.

“I love going, which is ridiculous,” she said. “It is just the most painless way to do cancer, and all of my new tests that have to be done, I get to go right to Irvine to get them done. Do you know how delightful that is? ... I’m over the moon about this new hospital. It can’t happen soon enough, as far as I’m concerned.”

Construction takes place at the City of Hope Orange County cancer hospital on Tuesday in Irvine.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

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