HOK, McCarthy Chosen as Design-Build Team for UCLA Health Neuropsychiatric Hospital Project

HOK and McCarthy have been selected by UCLA Health to transform the former Olympia Medical Center in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles, California into a neuropsychiatric hospital. The renovation will transform four hospital buildings into a unified care facility for patients experiencing mental and behavioral health challenges.

UCLA Health’s inpatient neuropsychiatric program is housed in the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, located within Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on UCLA’s Westwood campus. The move to the Mid-Wilshire location will allow UCLA Health to help address the region’s unmet need for behavioral health services. All 74 inpatient psychiatric beds will be relocated to the new location, with room for additional beds and a planned total of 119. Plans also call for 20 additional observation beds.

The hospital will meet California Department of Health Care Access and Information classification for acute psychiatric hospital buildings and include comprehensive behavioral healthcare services for adult, geriatric, child, adolescent and intensive care patients. Support spaces will include food service, imaging, pharmacy, lab areas and administrative offices. Trauma-informed design features will include distributed therapy spaces on each floor and rooftop terraces and grade-level gardens for patient and staff respite.

The team went through a five-month procurement process for the progressive design build project. Additional enhancements to the scoping documents include restacking patient units based on more operational efficiencies and patient safety and full exterior recladding to upgrade the facility.

The University of California Board of Regents approved project scope, design and financing on Nov. 17. Renovation of the 175,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin in May, with an opening no sooner than spring 2026.