A ribbon cutting full of ‘hope’ welcomes Orange County’s first cancer specialty hospital

In front of City of Hope Orange County’s sprawling new $452-million cancer specialty hospital, Annette Walker delivered an ambitious promise to an attentive crowd.

“Lives are going to be extended and many, many lives are going to be saved. This hospital is going to change the trajectories of families through generations,” Walker, the president of City of Hope Orange County, said during the hospital’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

The six-story hospital will officially open its doors to patients on Dec. 1.

Located on City of Hope’s emerging 72-acre academic research campus in Irvine, the hospital is now connected to the Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, an outpatient facility that opened in 2022. Overlooking the Irvine Great Park, it will be Orange County’s first hospital exclusively dedicated to cancer care and the second comprehensive cancer center for City of Hope in California. The expansion into Orange County has seriously cut the commute for patients in this region who had been driving to its founding campus in Duarte.

“For me, this moment is deep and personal,” said Joanna Mendez, an endometrial cancer survivor who is now on the path to healing from thyroid cancer after having been recently diagnosed at City of Hope.

“I used to think cancer marked the end of a story, but here,” Mendez told the gathered crowd Wednesday, “I learned that it was just the beginning of a new one filled with strength, purpose and healing.”

What’s to come

When the 174,000-square-foot hospital opens its towering sliding glass doors to cancer patients next month, it will have 73 beds and a staff of more than 700 people solely focused on treating cancer.

“Every single aspect of this hospital was built with a purpose and intention,” Walker said.

The first of the hospital’s six floors will have an eight-bed evaluation and treatment center — essentially an urgent care “open 24/7, 367 days for when patients have any issue related to their cancer,” Walker said during a recent tour of the space.

The new hospital also features two family suites designed to offer additional space for loved ones to stay while they support patients hospitalized for extended treatment. The suites include their own connected rooms for visitors, dining areas and private bathrooms.

Each inpatient room offers a view of the Great Park, Shady Canyon or the Santa Ana Mountains and features pullout beds where family members and visitors can stay the night and artwork donated by a local Orange County artist. And each floor has its own terrace that opens up to sweeping views.

Walker said the hospital was built with these views in mind, as to better facilitate healthy healing.

The whole building, Walker said, was also built with feng shui in mind; a specialist was hired to work with the architect.

“You’ll notice a feng shui element of the metal on the floor by the elevators, the way the doors are oriented, we did a lot of things with feng shui because this community has a great appreciation for feng shui design,” Walker said.

And along the lines of catering to the cultural diversity of the area, the hospital offers an immersive healing space that uses technology to transform into sacred spaces representing the world’s largest faith traditions — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. Or into one of several nature settings.

The cancer specialty hospital was seven years in the making, a journey that started in 2018 when City of Hope accepted an invitation from FivePoint to come to the county. That invitation spurred a $1.5 billion investment by City of Hope and its donors to build a cancer care campus in Irvine.

“Because of all this, my family and I are among those that Annette described,” Mendez said, in her closing remarks. “Together we are looking to a future where hope shines brightly — more birthdays and holidays to celebrate, more time to share, more memories to make.”