A $456 million landmark for cardiac care on the West Coast — and the glass that wraps its signature curved façade came from Glasswerks.
Precision Glass. Life-Saving Work.
When HOK Architects designed the Scripps Prebys Cardiovascular Institute, they envisioned an exterior that would communicate both precision and openness — and the result is a seven-story tower whose defining feature is its sweeping curved curtain wall, an arc of glass bending across the building’s southeast face. That glass is ours.
Glasswerks fabricated the exterior glazing in close coordination with Tower Glass, delivering units calibrated to the building’s demanding geometry, coastal San Diego climate, and California seismic standards. The curved façade required fabrication tolerances tight enough to read cleanly across a continuous sweep of floor-to-ceiling glazing — story after story — on what has since become a national model for specialized cardiac care and a landmark on the Scripps La Jolla campus.
Our Scope of Work
- Fabricated exterior curtain wall glazing for a seven-story, 383,000 sq. ft. cardiac care tower in La Jolla, CA — part of a $456 million facility, the largest and most advanced cardiovascular center on the West Coast at the time of completion
- Executed the building’s signature curved glass façade to tight fabrication tolerances across multiple stories, consistent with HOK’s vision for an exterior that communicates precision and transparency
- Supplied punched window units for the tower’s brick-clad north and west elevations, maintaining visual consistency with the surrounding campus architectural language
- Coordinated with Tower Glass on fabrication-to-installation sequencing across a complex, curved envelope system under a design-assist general contract delivery method
- Delivered performance-specified glass meeting California seismic code and coastal climate requirements for a building constructed to LEED Silver standards
- Contributed to a facility that has since been cited nationally as a model for specialized heart care design — a benchmark that has shaped hospital construction across the country
“This building is about what’s inside it — but the glass is what tells you something exceptional is happening here. A curved curtain wall at that scale has to be executed right, or the whole façade falls apart. Our team made sure it didn’t.”
Project Team
- Owner: Scripps Health
- Architect: HOK — Los Angeles, CA
- General Contractor: McCarthy Building Companies
- Construction Manager: Jacobs Engineering Group
- Glazing Contractor: Tower Glass
- Glass Fabricator: Glasswerks
