On Saturday, August 11, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego (RCHSD) is officially welcoming its newest outpatient pediatric care facility in the Riverside County community of Murrieta, Calif., with a grand opening event open to the public. The newly opened Rady Children’s Medical Plaza offers pediatric services including primary care, subspecialty care, developmental services, and specialized programs for children on the autism spectrum. The design-build team of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (McCarthy) and Stantec delivered the 62,500-square-foot facility. 

Rady Children’s Medical Plaza is a welcoming and accessible building designed to serve the growing population of southwest Riverside County. The three-story building sits on a four-acre site and contains an outpatient healthcare facility with surface parking, including patient drop-off configuration to support medical clinic use. The center’s multi-specialty pediatric clinics include Allergy and Asthma, Cardiology, Orthopedics, ENT, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology, Behavioral and Developmental Health, and a Physical Therapy Gym, as well as Pediatric Primary Care and, in the near future, Urgent Care. A Toddler Preschool and Inclusion Center integrates children on the autism spectrum into a licensed preschool facility that includes a secured, exclusive-use exterior playground and has two classrooms and developmental evaluation space. The day school and its playground are designed to be an engaging, joyful place that supports learning through play and provides a therapeutic environment for physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development.

With healthcare needs, care patterns and technology rapidly changing, the building is designed to efficiently support a variety of clinic types and allow for the easy reconfiguration of spaces as needs change in the future. The building’s design features open entry spaces, natural lighting, and vibrant and inviting interior spaces, as well as a hot air balloon motif that brings a sense of the local culture to the facility. The building design includes considerations for noise, views and daylight to ensure patient comfort. A consistent, warm palette of materials were selected for durability, easy maintenance, sustainability, infection control, support for indoor air quality and acoustical control, with LEED certification pending.

“It was a privilege to team with one of America’s leading health care providers to collaborate on the design and construction of RCHSD’s newest outpatient pediatric care facility in Murrieta,” said Joanne McAllister, Stantec’s San Diego-based principal, buildings. “We have a longstanding relationship with Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego and were thrilled to partner with RCHSD to expand its presence in Riverside county."  

“As a longtime partner of ours, we are honored to have a part in bringing the new Rady Children’s Medical Plaza to the southwest Riverside region,” stated Robert Betz, executive vice president at McCarthy. “We are proud of the integrated approach we took to design and construction, working alongside the Stantec team and Rady to deliver a facility that embodies what a children’s outpatient center should be – beautifully designed, adaptable to the future of medicine and its many innovations, and a place that Southern California families can be proud of.” 

“This fantastic new facility allows us the ability to provide expanded pediatric services to children and families in the community where they live,” said Donald Kearns, M.D., president and CEO of Rady Children’s. “The building is not only efficient and innovative; it is vibrant and inviting for our patients and families.”

Rady Children’s also operates a 13-bed inpatient Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta.

Global design firm Stantec provided architecture, interior design, lighting, electrical and ITC engineering services to the facility.