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Top: (From left) Drs. Bartly J. Mondino and Kelsey C. Martin, Chancellor Gene D. Block and Dr. John C. Mazziotta. Second: UCLA Stein Eye Insitute donors Robert Drabkin (left) and Dr. J. Bronwyn Bateman, former faculty and an alumna of the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology. Third: Tony Oppenheimer (left) and his wife Marti Oppenheimer (right) and Gerald Oppenheimer (center), son of Doris Stein and stepson of Jules Stein. Fourth: Dr. Mondino addresses guests gathered at the ceremony. Bottom: The reading room of the Jules Stein Building traces the history of UCLA Stein Eye Institute and features a portrait of Doris Stein. Photos: Reed Hutchinson |
UCLA Stein Eye Institute celebrated its 50th anniversary and the grand reopening of the renovated Jules Stein Building on April 20, 2017. “Today, the institute really is a vision-science campus,” UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block said at the ceremony. “It’s an interconnected community with the new Jules Stein Building, the Doris Stein Building and the Edie & Lew Wasserman Building.”
The expanded facilities enable UCLA to broaden research and provide exemplary care for patients in the treatment of eye disease and injury. The renovated Jules Stein Building features two floors of new modular laboratories that can expand and contract for researchers as funding needs change. The comprehensive ophthalmology and glaucoma areas have been redesigned, as has the Center for Community Outreach and Policy. Urgent Care is now a separate unit.
The renovation will help the institute continue to deliver leading-edge clinical care. “More space allows us to create revolutionary programs in treating eye disease, using techniques such as stem cells, gene therapy and even big data to help us gain a 360-degree view of a patient’s health problems, leading to new findings, novel treatment plans and more accurate diagnoses,” said Dr. Bartly J. Mondino, director of UCLA Stein Eye Institute, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and the Bradley R. Straatsma, M.D., Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology.
The renovated Jules Stein Building, designed by architect Jeffrey Stenfors, features a spacious atrium entrance that illuminates the first three floors. Like the Edie & Lew Wasserman Building, the Jules Stein Building utilizes more glass and light. The redesigned building, which is LEED-certified, also was seismically upgraded. The approximately $65-million, 108,000-square-foot project was funded in large part by private philanthropy.
“I am constantly moved by the deep and really visionary generosity of Stein Eye supporters,” said Dr. Kelsey C. Martin, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Gerald S. Levey, M.D., Endowed Chair, at the ceremony. “Their philanthropy has been so important in enabling Stein ophthalmologists and vision scientists to devote their careers to creating a future that’s free of eye disease and blindness.”
UCLA’s research and clinical work in the field of ophthalmology have grown rapidly during the past five decades, as has its outreach. Over the course of 40 years, the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic has provided free care to more than 300,000 underserved children and adults.
“In these remarkable 50 years, we’ve had many changes, but only one goal: superb patient care, research, community outreach and education for ophthalmological disorders,” said Dr. John C. Mazziotta (RES ’81, FEL ’83), vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences and CEO of UCLA Health. “That goal has been delivered year in and year out.”
For more information, contact Gail Summers at: (310) 206-9701
