Healthcare Design: Hoag Hospital Irvine Expansion To Redefine Healthcare With Wellness Village Concept

By Anne DiNardo

The Hoag Hospital Irvine expansion at Sun Family Campus, in Irvine, Calif., aims to reimagine the modern healthcare facility as a pedestrian-friendly campus that balances multiple low-scale buildings with open spaces and healing gardens.

Scheduled to open by 2026, the project centers on a wellness village concept with specialty care centers for surgical, cancer, digestive health, urgent care, and women’s services. Designed to create a differentiator in the healthcare marketplace, the plan includes 155 inpatient beds, eight operating rooms, and 120,000 square feet of ambulatory facilities.

Here, Lead Designer Franco Brown, principal and design director at LPA (Irvine, Calif.), the architect and interior design firm on the project, talks about rethinking connections to nature and meeting patient expectations.

HCD: This project aims to challenge the conventional hospital model. How?

Franco Brown: The idea was inspired by Hoag’s vision to create a world-class healthcare environment that is rooted in its place and community. Orange County, and Irvine, Calif., are renowned for a planning approach that balances buildings with green open spaces.

Working in this context, the concept of a low-scale “wellness village” of specialty institute buildings emerged. The design inside each building can then be shaped to its specific service lines with access to landscaped courtyards, patios, and terraces—leveraging nature to aid in the healing process.

Read the whole interview in Healthcare Design.