Feature By Michele Zimmerman
An Infusion of Comfort
As Mazzetti Associate Principal and Healthcare Lighting Lead Lauren Schwade’s father-in-law, along with a close family friend, were both undergoing chemotherapy, she was designing the lighting system of San Francisco, CA’s, John Muir Health outpatient specialty center—a facility with a cancer treatment focus. “I think for a lot of us, work like this hits too close to home sometimes,” said Schwade. “The infusion spaces were my baby: I wanted nice clean ceilings, not too busy. And if we’re going to go with a large fixture, it had to be soft and smooth, regressed, and not appear heavy over a patient’s head.” Though she cited the infusion bays as an aspect of the project she is particularly proud of, they are merely one small piece of the puzzle that is the finished product of her team’s work on the $250-million, LEED Gold-Certified, and Illumination Award of Merit-winning project.
Housed in the Behring Pavilion on the Walnut Creek Medical Center campus, the John Muir Health Jean and Ken Hofmann Cancer Center offers a wide range of diagnostic and treatment services pertaining to patients with cancer, breast-health and more types of imaging, genetic counseling, oncology/infusion, pulmonary function, digestive health, wound and post-trauma care, pediatrics, as well as clinics and various support spaces. The center opened to the public in 2024, roughly six years after its conceptual design phase began in the first quarter of 2018. Having previously designed the campus’s Central Utility Plant, the San Francisco-headquartered firm Mazzetti was a natural fit to lead the new project. The firm’s scope included MEP engineering, IT consulting, medical equipment planning, and the lighting scheme for the 155,000-sq-ft outpatient facility. The working relationship between the facility’s owners and the design firm remains active today, as Schwade cited she is currently working with them on a microbiology lab.
With the goal of creating a tranquil space meant for sustained patient and staff well-being, the team set to work on cost analysis—“a very long process of evaluation [that went on] for almost a year,” said Schwade. “Originally, [project owners] didn’t want to be the first to engage in an innovative controls approach. We worked through cost comparisons between distributed lighting controls and a full wireless system extensively with the architect, client, and contractor, including the addition of RTLS [real-time location systems] into one floor as a trial concept. We came up with new standards, a training document, and checklist for the client, which in the end, moved us all to the next level of design.”
Continuous coordination with all build teams and project stakeholders ultimately resulted in a combination of a detailed nLight control system, regressed panels to emulate skylights, daylight harvesting, and decorative fixtures to function as wayfinding (in addition to the required task illumination fit for a healthcare center).
The control system was selected for its straightforward installation as well as its level of ease for end users, in addition to its ability to tie into an RTLS such as Acuity’s Atrius—of which the project was granted a trial run, allowing the team to work through pros and cons in a real-world setting. A technical behind-the-scenes image of the wireless control system’s various tags displays the scheme’s complexity: “When we realized we were moving to a wireless system, we wanted our control devices to clearly show that they were wireless in type and description,” noted Schwade. “We soon realized that not all fixtures would need the same sensors and added tags to tell the contractors when it was an occupational sensor, emergency battery, etc. Since working on this project, we have elaborated and now show relay devices and drivers within our new standards depending on the project.”
Regressed panels, or “sky panels,” provide the healthcare facility with the appearance of skylights, without the cost of actual skylights. The team implemented 4-by-4-ft panels by Prudential Lighting above areas such as Schwade’s highlighted infusion bays and imaging suites to provide diffused light that reacts to daylight harvesting/time-of-day, or scenes of nature, which are dimmable from the patient’s chair. Schwade noted the regressed depth and trim of the panels were more visually convincing of skylights than flush LED panels. “We wanted a visual distraction for the patients to take their mind of the procedure,” she said. Though the project isn’t host to legitimate skylights, daylight served as the facility’s first layer of light: sunlight is abundant throughout public and circulation spaces, and daylight harvesting was laid out with intentional zones.
In procedural spaces, electric light is set to a utilitarian 4000K, but in other areas such as general and exam rooms, illumination is a comfortable 3500K, with backlighting on mirrors set to 3000K, to give the facility more of a “home-like” feel. Additionally, the team “mixed layers of light to highlight vertical surfaces with task light and sparkle,” said Schwade. Samples of cove lighting and decorative details were presented to project owners for approval, as fixtures needed to be durable enough to withstand wipe downs—an important element to a facility serving immunocompromised patients. Finally, linear recessed lighting (by Mark Lighting) was selected to house occupancy sensors in corridors throughout the project.
Conversation, collaboration, and detailed planning is what allowed this outpatient facility to come together to provide a smooth experience for patients, their loved ones, and the staff who care for them. “I think the owners were impressed that we took the time to bring up technology options, didn’t force anything, and took a long time to investigate controls and cost,” noted Schwade. “We felt like true partners that were not trying to sell them anything, but instead help them with future proofing.”
THE DESIGNERS
Lauren Schwade, Member IES, served as the lead lighting designer on the project and is associate principal and healthcare lighting lead at Mazzetti.
Brennan Schumacher, Member IES, served as the lighting controls lead on the project and is a practice lead and principal at Mazzetti.
Mia Curtic, Member IES, is a senior lighting designer at Mazzetti.
Winston Ho is an electrical engineer at Mazzetti.
Anjali Wale is an associate principal and senior electrical engineer at Mazzetti.
Kait Mendenhall, Member IES, was previously a lighting designer at Mazzetti.