Saturday, October 4, 2025

At Fair Oaks and California, Keck Medicine Debuts New State-of-the-Art Clinic

BY EDDIE RIVERA | PHOTOGRAHY BY Ricardo Carrasco III

The October rain had rinsed the sidewalks clean by the time a small crowd pressed into a glassy new lobby at Fair Oaks Avenue and California Boulevard on Friday morning. University leaders, city officials and neighbors gathered beneath floor-to-ceiling windows framing the San Gabriel Mountains to cut a ribbon and walk the halls of a four-story medical office building that Keck Medicine of USC says will change how — and where — many San Gabriel Valley residents get advanced care.

“This newest addition to Keck Medicine’s renowned health system solidifies our reputation as a health care leader in the San Gabriel Valley and brings world-class clinical care closer to home,” Rod Hanners, the health system’s chief executive, told guests.

The building — at 590 S. Fair Oaks Ave. — is Keck Medicine’s largest and most advanced outpatient site to date, a 100,000-square-foot complex that more than doubles Keck Medicine’s capacity to deliver care in Pasadena.

Keck officials cast the opening as part of a broader move into the city’s emerging biotech and biomedical corridor, saying the expansion reflects a university push to extend its clinical and academic mission far beyond its main campus.

Interim USC President Beong-Soo Kim called the project a “strategic expansion.” Kim said, “This strategic expansion in Pasadena allows Keck Medicine of USC to better serve our community, promote health and save lives.”

A lobby moment, and a promise

The ceremony had the feel of a neighborhood milestone. Mayor Victor Gordo welcomed Keck’s arrival and, gesturing toward a corridor that connects Pasadena’s scientific and cultural pillars — Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Carnegie Observatories among them — said residents could now look to a new corner for top-flight care.

“If you want the best care, medical care — not just care, but caring care — for yourself, your family, your loved ones, your friends, your family, now we get to say go to Keck Medicine right at California and Fair Oaks,” he said.

Councilmember Tyron Hampton described the building as “a major improvement to the community,” predicting accolades for the design. And Councilmember Justin Jones — speaking personally — said the proximity of specialty services had mattered to his family. “To know that [my mother] could get care in the city of Pasadena was very imperative to our family,” he said.

What will be inside

Keck Medicine says the site will offer more than 15 specialties and subspecialties — including cancer care and infusion, cardiology and vascular surgery, orthopedics and spine care — along with diagnostic imaging, lab services, pain management and an ambulatory surgery center. The system describes the location as a one-stop campus intended to cover routine imaging, arthritis management and cardiac work-ups, among other needs.

Patients will see many of the same physicians who practice at Keck Medical Center of USC. Those include specialists affiliated with the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center — a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center — and experts from the USC Cardiac and Vascular Institute and USC Orthopaedic Surgery, which also cares for USC Athletics and the Los Angeles Kings.

Keck officials also say the Pasadena location will deepen the university’s academic mission, providing clinical training for medical students, residents and fellows under faculty supervision — a nod to the system’s argument that an academic health center brings an “X factor” of research-driven innovation to community care.

A design meant to calm, and to conserve

The building’s architecture — light-washed floors, views to the mountains, and plantings that soften long corridors — was deliberately shaped to “promote well-being,” Keck Medicine says. The system is pursuing LEED Platinum certification for sustainable materials and on-site renewable energy, which would make the complex only the second USC-built project to reach that threshold. On-site valet parking is available.

Years in the making

The site did not always glitter. The developer, Mohammed Islam, first came to the corner more than 15 years ago, starting with the parking lot after Monty’s Steak House closed, his daughter Carolyn recalled. He later acquired the parcel and, she said, nurtured a vision for something larger in partnership with the city and the university — one that his family says included a $1 million donation to Keck Medicine of USC.

“This corner at Fair Oaks and California was without doubt a major consideration for the city of Pasadena for many years,” Carolyn Islam said, thanking city staff, university trustees and the late Councilmember John Kennedy. “Without all of you and your efforts, this jewel in Pasadena’s crown literally would not be here.”

A new model of medical care

Keck executives describe the Pasadena site as a working example of how academic medicine is changing: pushing specialty care outward, closer to where patients live, while keeping ties to flagship hospitals and research centers.

“There are going to be 15 specialties under this roof, bringing care near to your home in the San Gabriel Valley,” said Dr. Steven Shapiro, USC’s senior vice president for health affairs. “That is the future of medicine — care close to your home and with more technology.”

The system is set up so that patients here in Pasadena will be able to move seamlessly into higher-acuity settings when needed: Keck Medical Center of USC, the USC Norris Cancer Hospital and other departments that, the system notes, are ranked among the top 50 nationally in seven specialties and in the top 10 hospitals statewide by U.S. News & World Report for 2025-26. Keck Hospital was also named a Vizient 2025 Top Performer in health care excellence and quality.

Not a replacement, an expansion

Keck will continue to operate at its existing Pasadena office at 625 S. Fair Oaks Ave., an 18,000-square-foot clinic that the system says will focus on memory and brain health, bariatric medicine and clinical nutrition, endocrinology, gastroenterology, comprehensive ophthalmology, primary and family care (including geriatric services) and dermatology.

A corridor comes into focus

Again and again throughout the morning, speakers linked the building to Pasadena’s self-image as a place where science and culture meet. Mayor Gordo called the project a milestone for the city and the region. Hanners, returning to the lectern, praised the staff who will now work in a setting he called “highly specialized and beautifully designed clinical space,” opining that the environment matched the caregivers’ skills.

By day’s end, after certificates of recognition from the offices of Representative Judy Chu and Supervisor Kathryn Barger, guests fanned out through clinics and patient rooms. The corner that for years had been little more than asphalt and a shuttered restaurant had been remade and reborn — as a new symbol of Pasadena’s future of care, community, and collaboration.

Keck Medicine of USC Pasadena Medical Office Building, 590 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. Appointments: (626) 568-1622. Valet parking on site.