Scripps Health
La Jolla Tower II
Scripps Health is a respected leader in socially responsible healthcare, serving the San Diego region with a commitment to community well-being and forward-thinking clinical research.
AEI has served Scripps Health on its La Jolla campus since 2018, including serving as the engineer of record for the new acute care patient tower, known as Tower II. AEI’s scope included mechanical, electrical, piping/plumbing (MEP), technology, architectural lighting, and security design. The team significantly upgraded the central energy plant, including the installation of high-efficiency chillers that utilize low global warming potential refrigerants and the addition of new cooling towers, ensuring sustainable and dependable climate control well into the future.
The Scripps Memorial North Tower incorporates advanced mechanical systems purposefully designed to support both exceptional patient care and long-term resilience. Drawing on insights from the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility features 100% outside air handling units and dedicated exhaust systems in select patient rooms, enhancing infection control and improving overall indoor air quality. To further support hygiene, hands-free plumbing fixtures minimize the number of touchpoints throughout the building.
“One of the things that can create risk for patients are particles or things coming from surgical team or environment. So the laminar air flow system takes those particles and moves them away. The air comes from the ceiling, spreads over the operating table and moves them away.”
Tower II is an eight-story structure designed to support a wide spectrum of patient care, featuring 188 inpatient beds and advanced clinical technology. Three of the tower’s floors are dedicated to mother-baby care and include 18 private labor and delivery rooms, two dedicated operating rooms for cesarean sections, 24 neonatal intensive care beds, and 38 postpartum recovery beds. A unique feature of the labor and delivery floor is a rooftop patio designed as a wellness space for new mothers. The tower also features 96 private medical-surgical beds, supporting services such as oncology, orthopedics, neurology, stroke, spine, and trauma care.
Nine of the tower’s surgical suites are the first on the West Coast to incorporate laminar airflow systems, which provide a highly controlled environment by removing airborne contaminants from the surgical field, offering enhanced protection for both patients and clinicians.
Tower II will connect to the existing Tower I, operational since 2015, via a six-level, 19,000-square-foot bridge. Both seven-story medical towers share a distinctive V-shaped configuration and a unified architectural identity. Tower I houses labor and delivery suites, surgical patient rooms, postpartum beds, a nursery, obstetrics facilities, and neonatal care areas—creating a continuum of care across the integrated campus.
In planning for long-term resilience against environmental and public health threats, such as wildfire smoke and pandemics, the tower’s air handling systems are equipped to support HEPA and carbon filtration, ensuring superior indoor air quality. Energy efficiency and sustainability were also central to the design. AEI’s life cycle cost analysis informed a strategy that reduces the facility’s annual utility expenses by $135,000 and boosts thermal performance through envelope optimization.
Designed to comply with California’s rigorous seismic safety requirements and built for a 50+ year lifespan, the new Scripps Health La Jolla Tower II not only expands inpatient capacity but also underscores a lasting investment in patient safety, comfort, and community health.