UCI’s Medical Center Clinical Laboratory Building Wins DBIA Award

Newport Beach, CA, October 19, 2012 --(PR.com)-- The UCI Medical Center Clinical Laboratory Building in Orange, CA recently won a DBIA award making it ima’s second DBIA award winning project in as many years. As part of a master plan developed for the new UCI Medical Center, this five-story pathology laboratory and office building has a major support role on the campus providing reference lab services for medical institutions across the southern California region. The project consists of four floors of pathology laboratories and offices, with a fifth-floor shell space for future office development.

ima’s landscape design uses a planting palette comprised of low water consumption California native plants as well as shrub and tree plantings from the UCIMC Palette. ima used healing/herbal plantings to tie the Healing Garden to the new Hospital’s South Garden. The central plaza has groves of Ginkgo biloba trees offering shade in the summer and beautiful golden leaves in the winter. Within the planters are lavender, sage, and coral bells offering fragrance, color, and a soft touch. Along the East-West promenade are trees and colorful flowers including Wisteria vines trained to the buildings trellis. The busy freeway is filtered by trees and lined with shrubs and ground cover. An olive tree anchors the east side entry and a walk flanked by tufblock and lawn area to the north, offering fire vehicle access accented by medium sized evergreen Magnolia trees.

The facility is a LEED Gold and included some examples of the sustainable site features low volume drip irrigation with controlled spray connected to the existing campus control system with proper monitoring devices such as flow sensors, master valves and moisture sensing. Furthermore, the plants are grouped in “hydrozones” with similar water requirements allowing the water to be applied uniformly.

The other ima project recently winning a DBIA award is the LEED Platinum University of California, Irvine Engineering Unit 3. UCI Engineering Unit 3 won the 2011 National Design-Build Excellence Award for Educational Facilities. Led by Hensel Phelps Construction Co and Carrier Johnson Architects, Engineering Unit 3 was one of the top ten award winners for 2011.