Encinitas, Calif., May 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scripps Health today announced the upcoming opening of the Lusardi Tower, which is part of a nine-phase major expansion of the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas campus that includes three dozen private patient rooms, a new intensive care unit, a monitoring area for surgery patients and a postpartum unit for new mothers.
Scripps executives, physicians, philanthropist Warner Lusardi and Encinitas Mayor Bruce Ehler marked the facility’s completion with a ribbon cutting and Lusardi Tower sign reveal during a celebration outside the building. The first patients will move into the 140,000 square-foot, three-story building on Wednesday, May 20.
“The demand for healthcare services in North County continues to grow, and Scripps is investing in the region to ensure that we will be able to meet that rising demand in the coming decades,” said Scripps President and CEO Chris Van Gorder. “The ongoing expansion of Scripps Encinitas has transformed it from its origins as a community hospital to the destination medical center that it has become.”
The Lusardi Tower increases the hospital’s overall licensed bed count from 187 to 235, representing a critical expansion needed to keep up with the area’s population growth and rising emergency department volumes.
The building was named in honor of Warner Lusardi and his deceased wife, Debbie, both longtime North County philanthropists and Scripps Health supporters, who made a generous $25 million commitment to jumpstart funding for construction of the structure.
“My father taught me the value of giving when I was a young boy, and I’ve lived my life believing that the opportunities and blessings that come to you should be shared with others,” said Warner Lusardi, who founded and operated a family construction company with his father in 1958. “Scripps Encinitas is a critical community asset, and it’s gratifying to help ensure that it will continue to benefit countless people here for generations to come.”
Other generous donors also contributed to the ongoing fundraising effort to build the tower, including Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas, who underwrote the Jeannie and Gerry Ranglas Birth Pavilion and the Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas Intensive Care Unit.
The building features:
- 36 medical/surgical beds
- A 16-bed, state-of-the-art intensive care unit
- A 16-bed postpartum unit that is connected directly to the birth pavilion
- A 26-bed perioperative unit for convenient care and monitoring of patients before and after surgery
Additionally, the ground floor includes a bright and spacious cafeteria offering a wide range of healthy foods, snacks and drinks to staff members, employees, patients and visitors.
“Growing communities experience a greater complexity of medical conditions, and they need more health care resources to address them,” said Scott Eisman, M.D., physician chief operating officer at Scripps Encinitas. “This expansion of the hospital brings the latest technologies and practices to our patients in an environment that maximizes the abilities of our physicians and nurses to provide the highest quality care available.”
The tower complies with all seismic building requirements, and it incorporates a patient-centered design that promotes healing and wellbeing along with efficiency and productivity for the hospital’s staff members and employees.
Designed for comfort, healing and efficiency
Evidence-based principles guided the project with input from physicians, nurses, leadership, architects and support staff.
Private rooms contain the most advanced life-saving equipment, and natural lighting from floor-to-ceiling windows, soothing colors inspired by the surrounding landscape and beautiful pieces of local art help to create a connection with nature and feelings of comfort and healing for both patients and their family members.
On each floor, centralized nursing stations and glass-enclosed physician huddle rooms ensure that staff members maintain visibility of patient areas while supporting their operational needs.
Those design principles even extend to the building’s exterior where a vibrantly colored, three-story mural can be seen through a glass-enclosed stairwell on the south side of the tower along Santa Fe Drive. The art, which serves as a visual beacon for the hospital, depicts local landscapes such as the North County flower fields, coastal Torrey pines and golden California poppies.
Construction of the Lusardi Tower posed unique challenges.
Because the new structure is located within the existing footprint of the hospital, construction activities had to occur alongside functioning clinical areas. This required complex scheduling of the work to accommodate demolition of existing structures and construction of new areas without disrupting patient care.
Lusardi Phase 2 set for 2029 completion
Even with the opening of the tower this week, work continues on the structure’s second phase, a 42,000-square-foot addition slated for completion in October 2029. That portion of the tower will include new surgical suites, a cardiac catheterization laboratory, an interventional pulmonary suite, an interventional radiology suite and advanced imaging capabilities.
The Lusardi Tower is the final component of an ongoing master plan to greatly expand the Scripps Encinitas campus. A three-story, 68,000-square-foot medical office pavilion opened in 2021 on the northernmost portion of the site with walk-in clinic space for primary, cancer and other secondary care. In 2014, the Leichtag Foundation Critical Care Pavilion opened with a new 38-bed emergency department that sees more than 65,000 patients annually, a 36-private-room inpatient unit and two advanced surgical suites.
Rudoph and Sletten Inc. served as the general contractor on behalf of Scripps for the Lusardi Tower, Taylor Design was the architect and Jacobs provided program and project management services. Leading the project for Scripps was Alberto Hernandez, director of design and construction.
ABOUT SCRIPPS HEALTH
Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a nonprofit integrated health care delivery system based in San Diego, Calif. Scripps treats more than 650,000 patients annually through the dedication of more than 3,500 affiliated physicians and nearly 18,000 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses, more than 70 outpatient and specialty care locations, and hundreds of affiliated physician offices throughout the region.
Recognized as a leader in disease and injury prevention, diagnosis and treatment, Scripps is also at the forefront of clinical research and is the only health system in the region with two level 1 trauma centers. With highly respected graduate medical education programs at all five hospital campuses, Scripps is a longstanding member of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Scripps has been ranked seven times as one of the nation’s best health care systems by Premier. Its hospitals are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation’s best, and Scripps is recognized by the Advisory Board, Fortune and Working Mother magazine as one of the best places in the nation to work. More information can be found at www.scripps.org.
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Keith Darce Scripps Health 858-336-9069 darce.keith@scrippshealth.org
