Tarzana Medical Center’s new patient tower features Rockfon acoustic stone wool ceilings and seismic perimeter clip

Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center recently opened its new Friese Family Tower in Tarzana, California. The five-story, 200,000-square-foot patient tower is the centerpiece of an extensive and ongoing hospital expansion and modernization initiative known as Tarzana Reimagined.

Designed by Perkins+Will, the Friese Family Tower features approximately 100,000 square feet of Rockfon® acoustic stone wool ceiling panels in the lobby, patient rooms, offices, service spaces as well as the procedure, triage and exam rooms. Supporting healing, comfort and well-being of patients, staff and visitors in a calm, welcoming health care facility, the acoustic stone wool panels also contribute to the project’s sustainable design goals, cleanliness needs and seismic requirements.

Rockfon Chicago Metallic® 1496 Seismic Perimeter Clip was specified to meet Friese Family Tower’s Seismic Design Category D requirements in non-exitway spaces, as approved by California’s Department of Health Care Access and Information’s (HCAI), formerly the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD).

“In California, HCAI/OSHPD seismic requirements are very strict,” said Jean-Claude Lesaca, Perkins+Will’s senior project architect and associate. “Rockfon’s Chicago Metallic 1496 Seismic Perimeter Clip was approved for use in the lobby and all patient rooms, offices, service spaces as well as the procedure, triage and exam rooms. We worked with Rockfon to submit a range of reports and documentation to receive approval on the seismic clip. We reviewed and included case studies where it previously had been used. As additional support, a structural engineer provided a memo comparing OSHPD pre-approved clips with Rockfon’s Chicago Metallic 1496 Seismic Perimeter Clip to show equivalent compliance.”

Positively Impacting Care with High-Performing Ceilings
As part of a full-service health care campus, the Friese Family Tower combines modern technology and design with personalized, compassionate care. The state-of-the-art facility replaces the existing patient tower as the location for the bulk of acute care inpatient beds. It also features an expanded, ultra-modern emergency department, 150 spacious all-private patient rooms, an in-patient pharmacy, a pediatric unit with a dedicated room for adolescent patients, a cardiovascular unit, a critical care unit, a healing garden, and inspirational art from talented Los Angeles artists. New technology and equipment advances patient care, expanding access to the latest diagnostics and treatment.

Lesaca continued, “Sustainability and energy-efficiency are important on every project. Because hospitals and patient towers have a 24-hour occupancy, achieving LEED certification is difficult. At Perkins+Will, we have identified sustainable specifications and systems that we try to incorporate in all projects, unless a client has a particular request. For this project, we performed energy calculations and analysis to select high-efficiency equipment and provided documentation for the owner to receive credit from its local utility. We chose products with recycled content wherever possible, including the acoustic ceiling tiles.”

Perkins+Will chose Rockfon’s ceiling solutions for its seismic and acoustic performance, contributions to indoor air quality and infection control, sustainable and durable attributes, and overall modern aesthetics. These qualities all impact the vitally important resilient functionality, comfort, safety and healing atmosphere of hospitals and other medical facilities.

Meeting the project’s aesthetic and multiple performance goals, Westside Building Material supplied Performance Contracting with Rockfon Sonar® and Rockfon® Medical™ Standard acoustic stone wool ceiling panels, selected with a square tegular narrow edge. Performance Contracting installed the Rockfon panels in Chicago Metallic® 4000 Tempra™ 9/16-inch grid with the 1496 Seismic Perimeter Clip and 2-inch Infinity™ Perimeter Trim “shadow molding” throughout the Friese Family Tower’s rooms.

Perkins+Will designed the new tower to expedite great care while installing a sense of calm and well-being. Thinking of patient and family needs, the tower has visitor waiting rooms on all levels as well as recliners and sleeper sofas in all patient rooms, designed to help families stay close to their loved ones receiving care.

“Air quality and acoustics are very important to patient rooms,” noted Lesaca. “The California Building Code has a low threshold for acoustics. We worked with an acoustical consultant, Newson Brown Acoustics, to ensure the patient rooms met or exceeded the minimum standard. We always go for ceiling panels with a high NRC, around a 0.90 or 0.95 NRC, and full-height walls in patient areas. We want high sound absorbing tiles in patient rooms, exam rooms and above nursing staffing areas. Managing noise helps reduce stress. In the exam rooms and patient rooms, it also maintains privacy. You don’t want to hear someone in the room next to you.”

Safety, Sustainability and Sound Absorption
Earthquake safety is essential for acute care medical facilities in California. The Friese Family Tower is classified as Seismic Design Category D and built to withstand an 8.7 earthquake. Perkins+Will selected Chicago Metallic 1496 Seismic Perimeter Clip, which can be used in categories C, D, E and F as an alternate method of stabilizing the perimeters of suspended ceiling components. The clip’s robust construction allowed Performance Contracting to use a standard 15/16-inch wall angle, eliminating costly stabilizer bars and perimeter hangar wires, and expediting installation.

Perkins+Will and McCarthy Building Companies designed and built the project to match U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Silver standards. Rockfon ceiling systems support LEED criteria for low-emitting materials, acoustic performance, interior lighting, material ingredients and more. Rockfon stone wool ceiling panels are manufactured with primarily abundant basalt rock. Rockfon offers Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), Health Product Declarations (HPDs), Living Building Challenge(SM) Declare Labels and other supporting documentation.

“We want to create a more pleasant an environment that contributes to healing. We also want to have less clinical looking spaces, so we try to use materials that soften the rooms’ design,” said Lesaca.

Rockfon Sonar and Rockfon Medical Standard ceiling panels both comply with ISO Class 5 low particle-emission requirements and are GREENGUARD® Gold low-VOC certified. GREENGUARD Gold certified products meet the State of California’s Department of Public Health Services Standard Practice for Specification Section 01350 (California Section 01350) for testing chemical emissions and the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) Part 11, Title 24. The stone wool panels naturally resist moisture and do not support the growth of mold, mildew or microorganisms.

Rockfon’s sound-absorbing ceiling panels offer high Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRC), which reduce noise levels and reverberation times. In the areas where acoustics are most crucial, Rockfon Sonar ceiling panels deliver an NRC up to 0.95.

Contributing to the visual comfort inside the Friese Family Tower, Rockfon’s ceiling panels have a white surface with a high light reflectance that maximizes daylight and energy-efficient lighting to illuminate the hospital’s interiors evenly and efficiently. This diffused lighting helps reduce glare on screens and monitors, making it easier for staff to read and concentrate on information critical to patients’ care.

“The Friese Family Tower marks the beginning of a new era of health care in the San Fernando Valley. When we began construction on this building six years ago, we said we wanted to create a modern, full-service health care campus that could offer Valley residents incredible care incredibly close to home. Today, this vision has become a reality. We are grateful to the team at Cedars-Sinai, our physicians, caregivers, donors, partners, and the community for their collaboration in building this new facility that will help transform the delivery of health care in this region,” stated Nick Lymberopoulos, Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center’s chief executive.

Tarzana Reimagined
The Friese Family Tower is the crown jewel of the Tarzana Reimagined project, the largest construction project in the history of the Valley aimed at improving access to care and meeting the growing health care needs of the local communities. The project was made possible with a $50 million gift from Don and Andrea Friese with additional funding provided from community donations.

Overall, Tarzana Reimagined includes enhancements to the hospital including the new patient tower, an addition to the hospital’s lobby, an addition to the diagnostic and treatment area, the integration of a new central utility plant, and a Structural Performance Category 4D seismic upgrade of the existing hospital.

“We are delighted to welcome the community to the Friese Family Tower. Cedars-Sinai and Providence joined together in a shared vision to ensure easy access to the highest quality care for those who live and work in the Valley. This modern facility reflects our commitment to bringing compassionate care, specialty services and advanced treatments closer to home,” said Thomas M. Priselac, Cedars-Sinai Health System’s president and CEO.

Providence and Cedars-Sinai combined forces in 2019 with the goal of bringing the highest-quality health care to the San Fernando Valley community. The innovative partnership has enhanced local services while expanding local access to specialty care and advanced treatments. By expanding the nationally ranked medical center, the two medical groups created a world-class, ultra-modern, full-service health care campus with more than 800 physicians.

“The McCarthy Building Companies team is proud to be part of the Tarzana Reimagined project. The Friese Family Tower represents a dramatic shift in the health care landscape of our community and serves the catalyst for a brighter future for generations to come,” said Erik Chessmore, McCarthy Building Companies’ vice president of operations.

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Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center's Friese Family Tower; 18321 Clark St, Tarzana, CA 91356; https://www.providence.org/locations/socal/tarzana-medical-center
• Owner – joint venture: Providence St. Joseph Health; https://www.providence.org; and Cedar-Sinai; https://www.cedars-sinai.org
• Owner’s representative: Jtec HCM Inc.; Loma Linda, California; https://www.jtechcm.com
• Architect: Perkins & Will; Los Angeles; https://perkinswill.com
• General contractor: McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.; Los Angeles; https://www.mccarthy.com
• Acoustic consultant: Newson Brown Acoustics LLC; Culver City, California; https://newsonacoustics.com
• Ceiling – installing contractor: Performance Contracting Inc. (PCI); Anaheim, California; https://www.performancecontracting.com
• Ceiling – distributor: Westside Building Material; Anaheim, California; https://www.westsidebmc.com
• Ceiling manufacturer: Rockfon; Chicago; https://www.rockfon.com
• Photos: James Steinkamp Photography

About Rockfon
Rockfon is part of ROCKWOOL Group and is offering advanced acoustic ceilings and wall solutions to create beautiful, comfortable spaces.

At ROCKWOOL Group, we are committed to enriching the lives of everyone who experiences our product solutions. Our expertise is perfectly suited to tackle many of today’s biggest sustainability and development challenges, from energy consumption and noise pollution to fire resilience, water scarcity and flooding. Our range of products reflects the diversity of the world’s needs, while supporting our stakeholders in reducing their own carbon footprint.

Stone wool is a versatile material and forms the basis of all our businesses. With approximately 12,000 passionate colleagues in 40 countries, we are one of the world leaders in stone wool solutions, from building insulation to acoustic ceilings, external cladding systems to horticultural solutions, engineered fibers for industrial use to insulation for the process industry, and marine and offshore.

For more information, please visit https://www.rockfon.com.

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