City of Hope®, one of the nation’s top-ranked cancer centers and renowned as a place of healing, has a campus that reflects this reputation. Its Rose Garden, Japanese Tea Garden and Argyros Garden provide serenity to patients and loved ones seeking calm during cancer treatment. Now City of Hope has introduced another healing space — a park that offers opportunities for both solitude and togetherness.
Recently, Ted Schwartz, a patient treated at City of Hope, donated a total of $20 million to City of Hope to advance immunotherapy treatments. To honor and recognize Schwartz’s generous philanthropy, City of Hope dedicated the 1.65-acre Ted Schwartz Family Hope & Healing Park November 19, marking its formal opening for the community. This tranquil space on the Duarte campus offers patients and their families a peaceful sanctuary for reflection, respite and connection with nature.
“This garden is essentially my story of hope and healing,” Schwartz says.
Schwartz’s Story
In 2004, Schwartz sought dermatological treatment for bruising that wouldn’t heal. His doctor diagnosed him with a rare, aggressive form of lymphoma. Schwartz entered treatment. But by 2013, chemotherapy no longer worked, and he experienced more swelling.
When a 2019 scan revealed Schwartz’s lymphoma had transformed and become more life-threatening, Steven T. Rosen, M.D., Schwartz’s physician and former Director of the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope, recommended CAR -T cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy. This infusion treatment genetically modifies the patient’s cells and injects them back into the patient’s body to fight their cancer.
During an infusion session in the midst of the pandemic, Schwartz gazed at the view over the horizon and observed the nature around City of Hope. At that moment, he felt overcome by a sense of peace and hope — and a desire to help future patients.
“I told [Dr. Rosen], if I get out of this thing, I’m going to come back and we’re going to do something really special to help people,” he says. “I told him we were going to cure this disease together.”
A Peaceful Transition to Healing
The new park is designed to capture and immortalize the sense of hope Schwartz felt during that moment. Designed by CO Architects, the park will stand as City of Hope’s new entryway — a peaceful transition from the bustling city to a quiet, secluded place of healing.
According to architect Gina Chang, the park mimics the quiet topography you find in the San Gabriel Mountains that rise in the distance. From the infusion bays in Hope Plaza, patients can see the cobblestone paths that echo the stones found in the mountains’ floodplain. And in a nod to City of Hope’s origin as a tuberculosis clinic where sunshine and mountain breezes provided relief, several park characteristics capture the subtle winds that flow through campus. The park features large steel “leaf pavilions“ — sculptures that resemble flower petals, and gardenscape of native plants, lush trees, vibrant foliage and soothing water features. Even the parking garage, also designed by CO Architects, boasts multi-colored flags that flutter in the breeze.
The park is City of Hope’s front door, but it offers more than a visually stimulating introduction to the hospital’s campus. It also bolsters the message that patients benefit from and deserve choice during cancer treatment.
“When you’re going through cancer treatment, your life is not necessarily in your control anymore,” Chang says. “This park gives patients back some sense of control. They can choose how they want to experience moments of joy. Patients who want solitude can find smaller gardens. And there are larger gathering spaces for people to come together and share their stories.”
A Patient’s Perspective
Spaces like the Ted Schwartz Family Hope & Healing Park and other City of Hope gardens can play an integral — and positive — role in a patient’s cancer treatment. For Zélia de Sousa, they have offered inspiration and renewal for decades.
De Sousa’s cancer journey began in 1995 when she joined a City of Hope survivorship group. Since then, City of Hope doctors treated her husband, her daughter, and de Sousa herself.
Throughout every treatment regimen, she says the gardens felt like sacred spaces where she could escape and find fresh air and healing. Those times provided valuable moments of happiness and privacy. They were opportunities to reflect and cast away her fears and worries as best she could.
“During the darkest times in my husband’s, my daughter’s and my journey, the gardens were my refuge,” she says. “They were a place to contemplate and rejuvenate. I don’t believe anyone leaves those places feeling worse. It was in these sacred spots where I found solitude, strength and courage to conquer the future ahead.”
Thanks to Schwartz’s extraordinary generosity, City of Hope has established two transformative funds that propel its mission forward. The Accelerator Fund for Immunotherapeutics provides immediate, vital support to City of Hope’s immunotherapy patients, their families and the medical caregivers. Additionally, Ted donated $5 million to City of Hope to support the Immunotherapeutic Research Endowment Fund, a planned gift, which will ensure long-term funding for research teams to explore groundbreaking therapies for years to come. Dr. Rosen is the inaugural holder of the position created by this fund: the Ted Schwartz Family Distinguished Chair in Hematologic Malignancies.
