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UCSD unveils plans for a new hospital Scripps Health CEO blasts the move
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 15, Number 30
THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2010
Silver Ship soars on New owner modernizes eccentric home with a flair for minimalism
BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS La Jolla will have a new hospital in six years focused on cancer treatment, women and infants, and advanced surgery. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) announced April 1 that it plans to build the 10story-high Jacobs Medical Center next to its Thornton Hospital on the UCSD campus at a price of $664 million. The hospital will provide 245 patient beds. “Statistics tell us that with the aging population, San Diego will need 750 more beds by 2020,” said Debra Kain, spokeswoman for UCSD Health Sciences. The Sulpizio Family Cardiovascular Center is also slated to open in La Jolla next spring. In the six-year transition, UCSD will move its delivery and neonatal intensive-care unit from its Hillcrest medical center to La Jolla, Kain said. Instead of growing its inpatient services in Hillcrest, UCSD plans to reduce its number of beds by about 30 at its Hillcrest medical center by 2016, Kain said. Kain said UCSD is still committed to serving the downtown region at least through 2030. “We’re dedicated to staying in Hillcrest,” Kain said. “We’ve already invested $80 million, much of that is in seismic renovations.” But Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, said La Jolla doesn’t need another hospital. ”La Jolla doesn’t need any more beds,” Van Gorder said. “This is not a growing community.” Van Gorder criticized UCSD for moving services out of the downtown region — where it serves more of the underinsured and uninsured — to a wealthy neighborhood. “They’re doing it for money, it’s as simple as that,” Van Gorder said. “… The problem is that it leaves a burden to Scripps and Sharp in the downtown area and South Bay.” Van Gorder believes legislators haven’t criticized UCSD for moving services out of Hillcrest because it’s
BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS
Architect Eugene Ray designed and built this house in 1981 and called it “The Silver Ship.” Ted Spyropoulos modernized the house inside and out after purchasing it in 2006.
DON BALCH | Village News
SEE HOSPITAL, Page 4
Ted Spyropoulos wasn’t in the market to buy a house in 2006 when a realtor offered to show him the unusual curvilinear house with its half-circle carport perched high above Nautilus Avenue. Spyropoulos quickly traded in his studio in the Shores to buy the house for $700,000. He spent the next two years working with contractors and artists to reinvent the property. “I didn’t know what the colors and materials would be immediately,” Spyropoulos said. “I just knew I could make it new again.” Spyropoulos is a painter by trade who specializes in painting metals and plastics to look like woodgrain and antiques. Architect Eugene Ray The new homeowner built a had designed and built the long patio complete with an house by hand in 1981 adobe fireplace, which overwith four students from San looks Nautilus Avenue. Diego State University, DON BALCH | Village News where Ray taught environmental design. Ray lived there with his wife and three children until he sold the house four years ago. Spherical structures fascinated Ray, who believed they made for stronger buildings and reflected the flowing curves seen in nature. “There are no boxes in nature,” Ray said. “They’re brittle and they collapse.” Ray built a geometric roof over his third-floor studio by interlocking five-foot pieces of wood into a diamond shape called a lamella truss. No pillars dissect the house. Two of the four walls on the second floor slide open. It’s a steep climb between the three floors. Ray called his handiwork “The Silver Ship.” “A curvilinear structure is conducive to a better flow of energy,” Ray said. Spyropoulos didn’t share Ray’s taste for loud, bright
The second floor of the house is wide open with large windows. The white walls next to the window slide DON BALCH | Village News open completely. Notice the submarine-shaped doors leading to the bedroom.
SEE SILVER, Page 10
Committee recommends closure of Children’s Pool during pupping season The committee voted to keep the rope up yearround as a guideline for the public to stay behind, The city has taken its first steps toward a man- but with partial access to the ocean. agement plan for the Children’s Pool. The committee also voted to seek private fundThe Natural Resources and Culture Committee ing for a park ranger or lifeguard to instruct peo(NRCC) voted unanimously at a special meeting ple about rules regarding the seals and to help April 5 to send recommendations to the City keep the peace. The committee also instructed the Council for consideration. Park and Recreation Department to set up a trainThe committee voted to close the beach during ing program for volunteer docents to be overseen pupping season when seals give birth to pups from by the park ranger or lifeguard. Dec. 15 to May 15. Presently, the public is allowed Finally, the committee voted to prohibit dogs on the beach but not past a rope barrier. from the beach year-round. BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS
The new Jacobs Medical Center on the UCSD campus will cost $664 million to build.
The committee also instructed the City Attorney’s Office to investigate banning the pro-seal, informational tables set up at the beach, and to look into the accuracy of signage for the beach. District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner agreed to the recommendations at the NRCC meeting. Last week, Lightner had announced her intent to allow both seals and swimmers to use the beach by continuing the current joint-use arrangement, which ropes off the beach during pupping season.