Santa Monica, California – November 30, 2010 – Local Santa Monica architect, Michael W. Folonis, FAIA, has garnered a 2010 NEXT LA/AIA Honor Award for his firm’s breakthrough design approach to the UCLA Surgery and Oncology Center on 16th Street in Santa Monica. “The delightful interior atrium is expressive of a simple and elegant vocabulary of glass, metal, and wood, which is unexpected in a medical situation”, says an LA/AIA juror.Everything about the UCLA-Santa Monica Surgery and Oncology Center is about the unexpected. The building is a light filled space designed to consider patient experience: above all else: including a welcoming presence from 16th Street into the entry plaza, a less clinical  appearance, and using a variety of design elements to promote healing.

“We incorporated extensive feedback from our user groups, doctors, nurses and staff in order to determine our design approach,” says architect Michael Folonis. This led to natural light infused lounges, waiting and recovery rooms. One nurse from the group commented, “Natural light is so important to patients because of its healing qualities.” Other elements include a healing garden designed by local landscape architect Pamela Burton using medicinal and healing plants.

The UCLA Surgery and Oncology Center will be the first Gold LEED rated outpatient surgery and oncology medical building in the United States. The exterior street-facing skin will be all glass and engineered with a mullion-less structural system providing uninterrupted natural light.

Another innovative design feature will be the first fully automated parking system in Southern California. A client will check in their car at a kiosk, the car will automatically be scanned and then disappear to be stacked below, out of sight. This system eliminates the need for drive aisles, ramps, stairs, elevators, ventilation, lighting and drivers idling and hunting for an open parking space.

Currently the 45,000 square foot building is under construction, the second floor is up and the core and shell will be poured by the first of the year. The building is being constructed by Randy Miller of Nautilus Group.