Construction Begins on $263M Lusardi Tower at Scripps Encinitas

Construction has started on the $263-million acute care Lusardi Tower and Lusardi Pulmonary Institute. The project, being built by Rudolph and Sletten, is part of a multi-phased plan to expand the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas campus, located in California.

The tower, set to open before the end of 2025, will have 64 private inpatient rooms, including 36 private medical/surgical beds; 16 intensive care unit beds; multiple operating rooms and the Lusardi Pulmonary Institute, which will build on the hospital’s existing interventional pulmonary medicine program and provide a complete continuum of inpatient and outpatient care. The expansion will bring the hospital’s total bed count above 230.

The Lusardi Tower and Lusardi Pulmonary Institute are key components of the second and final phase of the ongoing master plan to greatly expand the hospital campus. An earlier phase two project — a three-story, 68,000-square-foot medical office pavilion located on the northernmost portion of the hospital campus — was completed in 2021. Phase one of the master plan was completed in 2016 and included the Leichtag Foundation Critical Care Pavilion, which encompasses an emergency department and a medical-surgical unit.

The newest building was supported by a $25-million gift in 2020 from philanthropists Warner and Debbie Lusardi of Rancho Santa Fe, the largest donation in the history of Scripps Encinitas. The Lusardis have a long history of supporting Scripps Encinitas and the entire Scripps Health system. They helped launch the ongoing fundraising campaign for Scripps Encinitas with a $1.1 million gift. Other donations from the couple supported upgrades to the hospital’s operating rooms and the acquisition of separate diagnostic technology to detect respiratory issues and bladder cancer. They also donated to support the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute and the Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute, both located in La Jolla.

Source: https://www.scripps.org/news_items/7629-263-million-lusardi-tower-breaks-ground-at-scripps-encinitas