Best Health Care Project

Photo courtesy of HMH Builders
Kaiser Permanente's modernized Santa Rosa Medical Center.

This $150-million phased hospital campus expansion, renovation and upgrade program in Sonoma County for Kaiser Permanente consisted of a new 148,400-sq-ft, six-story hospital tower and expanded emergency, radiology, intensive-care unit obstetrics and medical/surgical departments. It also included adding 58 beds and 17 emergency-department treatment bays and constructing two support buildings, totaling 17,000 sq ft.

Renovation of the existing hospital included changes to information technology departments, a new nurse call system, replacement of fire alarms and building control systems.

Among the technological innovations was the use of the proprietary SidePlate beam-column connection system, allowing all patient rooms to have unobstructed views while facilitating efficient layouts of above-ceiling utilities.

On the sustainability front, the team used cotton batt insulation on two of the six floors of the North Tower expansion—the first production application of its kind in a California hospital—while the remaining floors' fiberglass insulation had 25% recycled content. The team also used casework with formaldehyde-free board substrate; door cores manufactured from wheat straw; recycled content ceiling and wall finishes; low-mercury-content lighting; and water-efficient toilets.

Key Players

Owner: Kaiser Permanente, Santa Rosa

General Contractor: HMH Builders, Sacramento

Construction Management: Kaiser Permanente, Sacramento

Architect of Record/Master Planner: Jennings Ackerley Architecture & Design, San Francisco

Architect of Record (new tower): TLCD Architecture, Santa Rosa

Civil Engineer: Brelje & Race, Santa Rosa

Structural Engineer: KPFF, San Francisco

MEP Engineers: R&A Mechanical, Sacramento; The Engineering Enterprise, Auburn

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