by Kevin Cody
In 2019, a 2022 groundbreaking date was set for a $374 million, 253,000 square foot Healthy Living Campus on the Beach Cities Health District’s 11-acre, hilltop site at Prospect and Beryl avenues in Redondo Beach.
The new campus was to replace the seismically-challenged former South Bay Hospital, built in 1960, and its auxiliary medical buildings. Its architect was Paul Murdoch, whose local works include the Los Angeles International Airport gateway sign, and light pylons. His design for the Healthy Living Campus resembled his serene Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Renderings showed a white, circular Community Wellness Pavilion, encircled by 2.5 acres of trees and grass. Three story white buildings formed an arc along the perimeter.
BCHD CEO Tom Bakaly said the design was meant to create a “sense of place” for the community, with grass playing fields, an indoor pool, a fitness gym, a demonstration kitchen, and research facilities.
Last Saturday, after nearly a decade of controversy and compromises, BCHD held a groundbreaking for the first of just two new buildings planned for what once promised to be for health and wellness what Scripps Institute in San Diego is for oceanography.
Renderings at Saturday’s groundbreaking for a building also designed by Paul Murdoch Architecture, showed an architecturally unremarkable, 9,400 sq.ft., two-story, brown box that will cost $7 million. The building is scheduled to open next spring as home to allcove Beach Cities, a peer mentoring program developed at the Stanford Center for Youth and Mental Wellbeing.
allcove (the initial “a” is not capitalized) focuses on early intervention for teens with mild to moderate needs. allcove Beach Cities is presently on the fourth floor of the BCHD’s former hospital, which is to be torn down next year. Since opening in 2022, over 2,000 mostly high school students have enrolled in allcove’s programs.
The 2022 groundbreaking for the 11-acre Healthy Living Campus didn’t take place because the developer was unable to find financing in the COVID economy.
By then, neighbors had already nipped away at the scope of the Healthy Living Campus, whose initial, 2017 design was to have cost over $600 million and include over 400 senior living units.
Former Redondo Councilmember Bob Pinzler characterized the Healthy Living Campus as “mission creep.”
He said the senior living units were “nothing more than a new business venture.”
“It should be built and operated on commercial property,” Pinzler said.
Mark Nelson, a former member of the BCHD Community Working Group, challenged BCHD’s assertion that the district’s former hospital was seismically unsafe.
He further argued the proposed senior housing would be too expensive for beach city residents.
Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey asked BCHD to move the senior housing away from the Torrance border.
To placate the opponents, the BCHD board scaled back the project from 11 acres to its current 4.5 acres. Now, only the 66-year-old hospital is to be torn down. The newer, auxiliary medical buildings are to be renovated.
To fund the scaled-back development, the BCHD board placed a $30 million bond on the November 2024 ballot.
The bond was to provide $9 million for the allcove Beach Cities building, $8 million to demolish the former hospital, $7 million for park space; and $6 million for parking, grading, and contingencies.
The ballot measure failed, forcing a further scaling back of the Healthy Living Campus, and a partial hiring freeze at the health district.
This past March the district signed a letter of intent with Sunrise Senior Living to develop its scaled back plan. The plan includes replacing Silverado Senior Memory Care, which leases space in the old hospital building, with Sunrise Senior Living, which operates Sunrise Hermosa on land leased from the health district.
Local residents with family in Silverado took out full page newspaper ads last week protesting Sunrise’s selection because it does not offer memory care for the most acute patients.
It was against this backdrop that an estimated 200 elected officials, community leaders, and allcove Beach Cities families arrived at a vacant lot on the perimeter of the BCHD campus for last Saturday’s groundbreaking.
A mound of dirt had been deposited in front of the stage in anticipation of dignitaries posing with ceremonial groundbreaking shovels.
Five members of the allcove Youth Advisory Group spoke, and notably, just two politicians, Supervisor Holly Mitchell and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi. Both had secured significant grants for allcove after the bond measure failed.
“We want the kids to lead the program,” BCHD Director of Youth Services Ali Steward said, in explaining the absence of dignitaries at the mic.
The atmosphere was celebratory and hopeful, despite lingering images of what the Healthy Living Campus might have been.
The first youth advisor to speak was Mira Costa senior Sofia Faccini.
“We’re not just breaking ground,” she told the audience. “We’re breaking down barriers. We’re breaking down stigmas. We’re creating a place where young people feel safe saying, ‘I’m not okay….’”
Next, Redondo Beach senior Chloe de Villiers thanked by name each of the dozens of elected officials in attendance.
Then Mira Costa senior Yash Jha spoke.
“This is my story. This is my allcove,” Jha began.
Within an instant, memories of what might have been were extinguished by visions of what can be.
“My first contact with the mental healthcare system wasn’t with a therapist….
“It was a police officer at my front door. I was 12 years old. My brother had called, terrified of what I might do to myself. And while the adults all spoke around me — talks of ‘involuntary commitment’ and ‘protocol,’ I wasn’t thinking about getting help.
“I was staring at the gun on the officer’s hip. Remembering George Floyd from just a few months earlier.
“What followed was a cycle of hospitals, inpatient facilities, and outpatient centers. Scars and attempts etched on my skin in ways I didn’t know how to stop.
“What I experienced didn’t feel like help. It felt like being processed.
“I became a checklist. A case to stabilize.
“I remember the noise of the ER — shouting, alarms, people moving quickly — while I sat there, being told I wasn’t safe alone. I remember being handed treatment plans that reduced everything I was going through into boxes I had to check in order to leave.
“Read chapter 2 of The Four Agreements and write a one page response.”
“Progress didn’t feel like healing. It felt like compliance.
“I wasn’t alone in that feeling.
“Some of those friends aren’t here anymore. That’s the part that stays with me.
“Because all of it — the fear, the trauma, the months of treatment, the tens of thousands of dollars, the countless hours of clinical care came after things had already reached a breaking point….
“It didn’t have to get that far….
“allcove represents something rare in mental healthcare: prevention. It recognizes young people don’t suddenly wake up in crisis. Struggles build slowly — in classrooms, at home, in silence and towering piles of homework…
“Investing in allcove means choosing early intervention over emergency response, community care over institutional care, and trusting young people when we say what we need.”
Alina Rashidfarokhi, a senior at Redondo Union High School talked about hiding problems.
“This is my story. This is my allcove.
“Growing up, I mastered the art of pretending I was fine even when I felt I was crumbling. I tried so hard to not show the academic stress, anxiety, grief and challenging home environment that I was trying to navigate. I watched as family members struggled, refusing to get help because of the stigma around mental health…. However, what I tried even harder to hide was my blindness… The world isn’t built for me. Everywhere I turned there was a lack of accessibility, barriers to care… I felt invisible.
“This is why allcove stands out to me. The variety of services and sense of community allcove offers is crucial. It fills the gaps in our mental health system. allcove provides transportation, drop-in support, culturally sensitive care for free.
“Our center has a diversion program for those in the juvenile justice system, gender identity dialogue groups, resources for homeless youth, and an area for individuals who may be sensitive to loud noise…. I stand here today for the young people who don’t have a voice… and to ensure no one young person feels unseen.
Trevor Huo, a junior at Mira Costa High School was the final Youth Advisory speaker.
“This is my story. This is my allcove.
“To all the parents here, you know teenagers don’t always listen. So, if they don’t listen to you, why should they listen to other adults? My brother was that sort of rebellious kid. I admired him to my very core. He, however, ended up going down a different path. He wasn’t the sort to respond to rehab centers or clinics led by adults who didn’t understand him. On this path his best friend was lost to an overdose, remaining a forever 14-year-old boy. His family never fully recovered, my brother was never the same.
“What I’ve learned is that addiction rarely starts with addiction. It begins with untreated mental health conditions. We cannot wait until a child is wheeled away under a white cloth to act.
“I’ve also learned most of those who need help won’t recover because an adult tells them to. That’s why we need places like allcove. It creates a community of youth to help guide their peers….
Faccini returned to the mic and asked the audience for a mindful moment.
“I want to invite you to close your eyes. I want to walk you through the doors of allcove for the first time, as a young person….
“Maybe they’ve been pretending they’re okay because they don’t want to burden anyone. Maybe they don’t have the words yet for what they’re feeling.
“Imagine, instead of judgment, they’re greeted with kindness. Instead of pressure, they’re met with patience. Someone offers them a snack, or simply says, ‘We’re glad you’re here.’
“For the first time in a long time, they exhale.
“And maybe, for the first time in a while, they believe there’s hope.
“Now open your eyes,” Faccini said. ER
Isn’t it interesting that voters REJECTED Measure BC that was to fund the cost overruns on the ALLCOVE building. REJECTED. Voters said – we don’t want to pay. And what did BCHD do? They took out a loan for cost overruns – a loan that will be paid for by Resident-Taxpayer-Voters! So VOTERS SAID NO – and BCHD SAID TOUGH STUFF – we will FORCE YOU TO PAY. Isn’t that a morally bankrupt action by BCHD? NO MEANS NO!
One other comment – BCHD repeatedly claims that the kids aren’t comfortable using the elevator in the hospital building and having to interact with adults – so they NEED their own building. Are we really tying to create isolationists without basic interactional skills? Can you 50’s and 60’s kids even imagine requiring your own BUILDING instead of using any existing space that you could get for free?