Work Begins on Burbank Cancer Center

Officials at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank marked the start of construction on a $70-million cancer treatment center Tuesday with a ceremony preceded by a celebratory Mass.

The Most Rev. Armando Ochoa, auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, officiated at the ceremony and blessed the ground on which the six-story, 170,000-square-foot Robertson Tower will be built.

A North Hollywood businessman and his wife who donated $7 million toward construction of the center were among about 150 people who attended the 11 a.m. ceremony at the entrance to the hospital, at Buena Vista Street and Alameda Avenue.

Big Bear residents Jack Robertson, 51, owner of Robertson Honda, and his wife, Diane, 52, said their contribution was made in honor of their late parents.

“The Sisters of Providence are such a wonderful and dedicated group of women that we wanted to do something to support them,” said Diane Robertson, whose parents died of cancer.

The Sisters of Providence founded the nonprofit hospital in 1944. With 647 beds, it is the largest health-care facility in the San Fernando Valley and the largest Catholic hospital in the state, officials said.

The new center will feature state-of-the-art facilities for cancer detection, treatment, education and research, said Richard E. Horowitz, the hospital’s director of pathology. Hospice and family counseling facilities will be included in the expansion, scheduled to be completed in early 1992, he said.

‘It’s estimated that one in four people in our service area--some 300,000 citizens--will encounter cancer in their lives,” Horowitz said. “The expanded cancer program will allow us to significantly enhance the medical center’s already strong cancer program.”

Also planned are new intensive care and mental health units, a laboratory for diagnosis of vascular diseases and expanded facilities for diagnosis in radiology and nuclear medicine.

With the Robertsons’ contribution, the hospital foundation has raised nearly $13 million of its contribution goal of $15 million for the cancer center, hospital officials said.

Tax-exempt bonds and hospital operating fees will generate the balance of the $70 million, officials said.

Also attending the ceremony were Burbank Mayor Robert R. Bowne, City Manager Robert Ovrom, and Councilmen Michael Hastings and Michael Flavin.