Daily Business Report-Feb. 16, 2017
Driveway into the EF International Language Center in Point Loma. (This and other photos by Steve Muckley)
KTUA Transforms Shuttered Hospital Lot
into Outdoor Gathering and Green Space
KTUA, a San Diego-based planning and landscape architecture firm, has transformed the parking lot of the formerly shuttered Cabrillo Hospital into a gathering and green space for the many students who study at the new home of the EF International Language Center.
Sitting vacant for several years, the old Cabrillo Hospital in the Point Loma area of San Diego is now owned by EF, which has transformed the building into an international education mixed-use campus with classrooms, residences and community spaces.
Brooke Whalen, a senior associate and landscape architect at KTUA, managed the project through completion. “We were really excited to work on this project from the very beginning. This was a great opportunity to participate in an urban-infill project that has enhanced the neighborhood. Prior to the project, it was an underutilized facility that sat vacant for a very long time, but now it is bustling with students,” said Whalen.
KTUA was involved at the conception of the project and attended several community planning group meetings while preparing exhibits that assisted the client in gaining community support for the project.
Following the public outreach process, the team conducted interior renovations of the existing hospital building as well as some exterior site work to activate the street side of the property with new, landscaped green space and outdoor gathering and community areas.
The landscaped spaces feature sand volleyball courts, a speed soccer field with a shaded viewing area, a pool and pool deck, and upgraded planting, hardscape, and parking facilities. Because the students rely so much on public transportation, 100 bike parking spaces were incorporated into the site and a portion of the existing parking lot was transformed into usable outdoor landscape spaces.
A patio outside of the student center building includes a trellis, fire pit with cast-in-place benches, and outdoor concrete table tennis that allows for a great area for students to hang out and socialize.
The indoor dining area on the first floor, with large roll-up doors, connects the indoor and outdoor space and encourages students to spill out into the landscape. The entry of the building was also enhanced to welcome students.
New Method to Identify Bacteria in Blood
Samples Works in Hours Instead of Days
By Ioana Patringenaru | UC San Diego News Center
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a desktop diagnosis tool that detects the presence of harmful bacteria in a blood sample in a matter of hours instead of days.
The breakthrough was made possible by a combination of proprietary chemistry, innovative electrical engineering and high-end imaging and analysis techniques powered by machine learning. The team details their work in the Feb. 8 issue of Nature Scientific Reports.
To identify low levels of harmful bacteria among a large number of human blood cells, researchers for the first time melted bacterial DNA in 20,000 extremely small simultaneous reactions. Each reaction contained only 20 picoliters — a scale that is hard to picture: one drop of rain contains hundreds of thousands of picoliters.
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Grossmont Healthcare District Issues
Final Construction Contract for Prop. G
More than a decade after East County voters approved Proposition G, a $247 million bond measure that provided taxpayer funds for improvements at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, the final construction contract was awarded to San Diego-based Swinerton Builders by Grossmont Healthcare District.
The $10.2 million contract covers the construction costs for the build-out of the Surgery Floor of the new Heart and Vascular (H&V) Center. Additionally, approximately $8 million of state-of-the-art medical equipment will be installed when build-out of the facility is complete. Construction of the H&V Surgery Floor is currently underway and scheduled for completion in 2018.
When completed, the H&V build-out will include four new cardiac catheterization labs and four multipurpose procedural rooms that will support a wide range of surgeries, including general surgery, open-heart surgery, minimally invasive surgery and image-guided surgery, as well as various endovascular interventional procedures.
Construction of initial phases of the H&V building was completed last year at a cost of over $60 million. The 71,000-square-foot building, on the eastern side of the busy hospital campus, adjoins an existing building that houses operating rooms and cardiac catheterization labs.
In addition to constructing the actual H&V building, the overall project included a new pharmacy and clinical testing laboratory, three new elevators, heating and air conditioning equipment, a new loading dock and materials receiving area, and shell space for the surgical floor build-out. The Pharmacy and Laboratory opened in March 2016 and immediately began serving patients.
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Serving Seniors Awarded $100,000
Grant for Dementia/Alzheimer’s Program
Serving Seniors announced the launch of the Shiley Dementia/Alzheimer’s Early Detection and Intervention Pilot Program, a new service funded through a two-year grant of $100,000 from The Shiley Foundation. The program will provide early detection and referral services for older adults living in the San Diego area who may be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other diseases of dementia.
The Shiley Foundation grant will support the appropriate training needed for Serving Seniors’ clinical staff, case managers and home-delivered meal drivers so they may be able to identify and detect the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, as well as offer clients necessary assistance and medical referrals. The goal is to keep seniors living independently as long as they are able to do so safely. Serving Seniors anticipates in the first year of the program over 450 client evaluations will be made.
During program development, Serving Seniors will partner with the University of California, San Diego’s Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
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‘Imaging Technology of the Future’ to be
Showcased at National Health Care IT Show
NucleusHealth, a health care IT company that claims to revolutionize how medical images are stored, transferred and viewed by doctors, hospitals and researchers, has been chosen to demonstrate its new “cloud-hosted” image management technology at the nation’s largest health care IT conference.
Chief Technology Officer Chris Hafey will demonstrate the company’s image management system at the Microsoft Booth Theater at HIMSS 2017 in Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 21.
“Medical image management – including the ability to view, manipulate, interpret and store images on a large scale – is critical to advancing clinical research, developing novel therapies and improving clinical workflow,” said Hafey.
The company’s nucleus.io technology is supporting major cancer research being conducted at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, making it easier, cheaper and more accurate to store, view and report on medical images for clinical trial results.
“We’re demonstrating how our nucleus.io technology can cloud-host the entire medical image archive, a web-based image viewer, and the workflow/data management system from a clinical trial,” said Hafey.
NucleusHealth is the parent company of San Diego-based StatRad, which provides teleradiology services to more than 400 health care facilities in more than 40 states.
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Athena’s 19th Annual Pinnacle Awards
To Feature Keynote Speaker Haben Girma
White House Champion of Change recipient Haben Girma will deliver the keynote address at the May 4 Pinnacle Awards sponsored by Athena, the San Diego-based business organization championing women executives.
The first DeafBlind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma advocates for equal access to information for people with disabilities.
In addition to being honored by President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton and many others, Haben Girma has earned recognition as a Forbes 30 under 30 and BBC Women of Africa Hero. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology/Anthropology from Lewis & Clark College, as well as a law degree from Harvard. Haben Girma has been featured extensively in the media around the world.
Athena’s 19th annual Pinnacle Awards recognize leaders for playing a significant role in their industries while also advancing women within their organization or in the San Diego community. Athena awards five Pinnacle scholarships annually to graduating high school senior women in San Diego County planning to major in a STEM field.
The May 4 event will take place at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla. More information is available at www.athenasd.org/about-the-pinnacle-awards.
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Personnel Announcements
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
Elevates 5 San Diego Attorneys to Partner
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP has elevated five of its San Diego area attorneys to partner: Rachelle A. Costa, San Diego (Del Mar), Anna T. Dorros (San Diego), Nam H. Kim, San Diego (Del Mar), Marisa B. Miller, San Diego (Del Mar), and Karin Dougan Vogel (San Diego).
Rachelle Costa is a member of the Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental practice group. Costa represents residential and commercial real estate developers in connection with the creation of master planned communities, condominium, planned developments, custom lot subdivisions, high-rise developments, and commercial centers.
Anna Dorros also is a member of the Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental practice group. She has specialized expertise in California Bureau of Real Estate regulatory compliance matters. Dorros received a J.D. from University of California, Los Angeles in 2002 and a B.A. from Georgetown University in 1997.
Nam Kim is a member in the Intellectual Property practice group. Kim’s practice focuses on patent litigation, patent preparation and prosecution, ex parte reexamination, AIA post-grant review proceedings, and IP counseling. He is involved in patent litigation matters to defend clients’ IP rights against infringers and defend clients against alleged infringements.
Marisa Miller is a member of the Business Trial practice group. Miller specializes in complex business litigation with a focus on energy, environmental and construction matters. She has experience handling matters in all stages of litigation, from pre-lawsuit strategy and advice to post-trial motions and appeals.
Karin Dougan Vogel is the firm’s appellate practice leader and a member of the Business Trial practice group. Vogel has extensive experience in appeals and writs on matters involving a broad range of complex business litigation. She practices both in state and federal appellate courts, in all aspects of the appellate process.
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Eddie Rodriguez Joins
Troutman Sanders as a Partner
Troutman Sanders LLP announced that Eddie Rodriguez has joined the firm’s Corporate practice as a partner in the San Diego office. Rodriguez comes to Troutman Sanders from Mintz Levin.
Rodriguez’s practice focuses on corporate and securities matters, including corporate formation, mergers and acquisitions, venture financing, technology licensing and general business counseling. He has extensive experience representing both public and private companies in industries, including medical devices, mobile, life sciences, health care, telecommunications, software, hardware, e-commerce and information technologies.
With the addition of Rodriguez, Troutman Sanders has added 13 lateral partners on the West Coast in the past two years. The firm now has close to 100 lawyers practicing in Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco and Portland.
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Micah VanDover Joins The Park, Bankers Hill as Community Sales Manager
Zephyr’s The Park, Bankers Hill development has added luxury high-rise real estate specialist as its community sales manager.
VanDover more than 16 years experience selling luxury condominiums and private residences in high-profile buildings and hotels – including the Trump Hotel and Tower Waikiki Beach Walk, Raffles Hotel & Resort in the Philippines, Westin Monache Resort Mammoth and Ritz-Carlton Residences Kapalua.
VanDover said the property is unlike any other in San Diego because of its proximity to Balboa Park and world-class cultural amenities, sweeping views of the park, downtown skyline, San Diego Bay, Coronado and Harbor Island, and expansive balconies that allow for true indoor-outdoor living. Private access elevators add to the exclusivity.
