From the ashes of blighted Marlton Square rises a new medical office building, courtesy of healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente. Two years ago, the Oakland-based nonprofit announced plans to construct a new outpatient facility on an 8.6 acre parcel near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Marlton Avenue. Now, an environmental report just released by LADCP has finally revealed all of the juicy details. Known by the glamorous title of "Kaiser Permanente Outpatient Medical Facility - Baldwin Hills MOB," the project offers a four-story, 105,000 square foot building, surrounded by surface parking lots and a landscaped central plaza. The plaza, which will be open to the public, allows for cut-through pedestrian traffic between the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping mall and the residential neighborhood to the west.
Designed by HOK, the project will utilize a variety of environmentally friendly measures in an effort to obtain either LEED Gold or LEED Platinum Certification. The outpatient facility will incorporate solar panels in several areas throughout the project site, including its parking lots and the central plaza area. Most notably, the building will employ a photovoltaic canopy as part of an architectural rooftop feature. Other exterior materials include include metal panels, perforated metal screens and spandrel glazing.
The new medical offices will rise on a site once occupied by Marlton Square (a.k.a. Santa Barbara Plaza), a long dilapidated shopping complex which was demolished in 2011. With the new Crenshaw/MLK subway station slated to open one block east in 2019, it appears that Kaiser's timing may be just right. Per the environmental report, a full buildout of the outpatient facility is anticipated sometime in 2016, following a 16 month construction timeline which should begin later this year.
