City of Hope Orange County holds ‘topping off’ for cancer hospital
Orange County’s first hospital exclusively dedicated to treating and curing cancer is one step closer to completion.
City of Hope Orange County held a “topping off” ceremony Wednesday morning for the installation of the final beam of its specialty cancer hospital at FivePoints Irvine campus, slated to open in 2025.
More than 400 people, including City of Hope staff, construction representatives, community members and elected officials gathered for the event. Guests were invited to sign the final 28-foot steel beam, which was then adorned with a wishing tree — containing tags with messages of hope for cancer patients — before it was raised to the building.
“Today is not just a milestone for Irvine,” Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim told the crowd assembled. “It is a triumph for all those who hold faith in the transformative power of compassionate community. Right here in Irvine, united in purpose, we are forging ahead to the future and to a world without cancer.”
The six-story cancer hospital will be connected to the adjacent City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center, which opened in August 2022. The nonprofit is investing $1 billion, fueled in part by philanthrophic efforts, into the combined cancer campus.
One person who wiped away tears on Wednesday was City of Hope Orange County President Annette Walker.
“We’ve been planning this for months, and I thought, ‘Well, you know, it’s going to be another ceremony,’” Walker said. “But I did get really emotional. It made me reflect. In 2018, City of Hope first announced that we’re going to come [to Orange County], and I’m looking at this and I can’t quite believe that it’s here now for our neighbors and us and our children. It’s humbling. It’s humbling to be part of it.”
“Topping off” ceremonies are a tradition in the construction industry, for the “suits” to honor the boots on the ground. Wednesday’s ceremony included construction workers in hard hats and vests running through the crowd, as music played.
City of Hope has brought together a team of healthcare experts to build and design the hospital, including Freeman Group, Jacobs for project management, Hensel Phelps for construction and HOK as the architect. The 164,000-square-foot hospital will have 73 beds.
Mark DeSantis, who lives nearby in the Great Park, is certainly appreciative of the efforts. DeSantis’ big sneeze in November 2021 led to his vertebrae bursting, and he had to go to the hospital for emergency back surgery.
While there, testing led to his diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a rare form of blood cancer. He has now received care at City of Hope’s Duarte and Newport Beach locations, as well as the Lennar Foundation Center Center since it opened last summer.
“It’s meant the world to me, to be able to receive care so close to home,” said DeSantis, a finance professor at Chapman University. “I feel good. I’m active, I exercise daily. Right now, I’m receiving what they call maintenance therapy, so I come to this facility once a month. I get my blood work, see my doctor then go upstairs and receive my treatment.
“I’m so excited that this state-of-the-art facility is right here. You can’t truly appreciate the impact that this facility is going to have until you or a loved one needs the services it provides.”
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley was also at Wednesday’s ceremony. Foley represents District 5, which includes a large portion of Irvine.
Foley signed the final beam before it was lifted up. She said she has family members who have both had cancer and currently have cancer.
“You don’t really appreciate how much life is sucked out of you until you are going through the treatments, the emotional strain, the stress of it all,” Foley said. “It’s hard to get in the car and have to drive and deal with that extra stress. Having this convenient location here, having it surrounded by beautiful open space, it just makes you feel good. You get those endorphins flowing just by being on this campus.
“Orange County is really investing, both privately and publicly, in healthcare,” she added. “We are becoming, I think, nationally known as a healthcare hub, with technology, with the healthcare industry, with healthcare professional jobs. So, it’s really exciting that we have this right here in Orange County and District 5.”
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