Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has received a $140 million gift—the largest gift in the hospital’s 121-year history—from the estate of longtime supporters Susanne and Ervin Bard.
The gift will propel clinical and research innovation in the medical campus’ newest building, a 450,000-square-foot tower that opened in 2013 and has until now been named the Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion. It houses the Smidt Heart Institute and the Samuel Oschin Cancer Center, among other research and treatment facilities.
As a result of the gift, the building will be renamed the Susanne and Ervin Bard Pavilion at a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for this morning.
The late Susanne and Ervin Bard were both born in Hungary; their respective families emigrated to the United States after World War II. They met and married in New York and moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s. Ervin Bard first sold insurance policies and then ventured into property investing. As his property investments grew, the couple started to donate to and volunteer at the new Cedars-Sinai Medical Center campus. The couple made several donations to Cedars over the years. Ervin died in 2006; Susanne died in 2022.
“The generosity exhibited by the Bards was extraordinary throughout their lifetimes and now as part of their legacy,” said Thomas Priselac, chief executive of Cedars-Sinai. “This amazing gift has cleared new pathways to continue the pioneering research and thoughtful care that Cedars-Sinai is dedicated to delivering.”
