Children's Hospital Los Angeles has settled nicely into its new $636 million, 317-bed, state-of-the-art hospital building after an epic July move during the infamous "Carmageddon" weekend, when the 405 freeway was shut down for construction, and the closure effects rippled through the Los Angeles metro area.

More than 1,200 hospital staffers moved almost 200 patients, ranging from the tiniest babies to teens battling cancer and heart disease, from the Mary Duque Building (built in 1968) into the new Anderson Pavilion on the hospital campus at 4650 Sunset Blvd.

The new building is named in honor of local philanthropists Marion and John E. Anderson, whose $50 million gift kick-started the project. It's seven stories tall, 460,000 square feet in size, with more private rooms and family-friendly accoutrements, including an outdoor playground, and it's equipped with the latest in state-of-the-art medical technology,

Planning for the move began almost a year before the city decided to close the freeway on "moving day," which led to many staffers camping out at the hospital over the weekend to make sure they didn't get stuck in traffic.

Hospital staff had the move planned down to the minute for each of the patients in order to quickly and efficiently transport them from the existing hospital to the new building. Starting at 7 a.m., doctors and nurses carefully moved patients at a rate of about one every 2 ½ minutes until all of them were in their new rooms by 3:30 p.m.

The first patient to move into the new hospital was 10-year-old patient Manny Hernandez, Jr. of La Verne, CA, who found the move to be an exciting change of pace from his typical routine.

"Children's Hospital is my second home, I know all the nurses and everyone here," Hernandez said. "It was really cool being the first patient in the new hospital. My new room is so much bigger, and I love that when I look up, I see butterflies on the ceiling. And I can play video games and watch movies on the computer by my bed!"

The last patient to move in was a 2-year-old from the bone marrow transplant unit, whose bed carried a sign that said "Saved the Best for Last."

"It was a truly remarkable and joyous day for all of us," said Richard D. Cordova, FACHE, the hospital's president and CEO. "As a community we have designed and constructed the perfect building which is truly a work of art and certainly a precious jewel for the City of Los Angeles."