San Francisco
Region California
Project Team
Owner UCSF Medical Center
Contractor DPR Construction
Lead Design Firm Stantec Architecture Inc.
Structural Engineer Rutherford + Chekene
Civil Engineer CSW/Stuber-Stroeh Engineering Group
MEP Engineer Arup
TELECOM/AV Engineer TEECOM

Tasked to build a complex medical center that combines three different hospitals and an office building in a tight downtown space amid fast-changing regulation, technology and workforce trends, the University of California, San Francisco and its construction team “identified early the need to deliver this project differently,” says its project submission. The eight-year project used a modified integrated-project-delivery (IPD) method to keep the schedule and budget under control. The team says the $1.5-billion project “set a new benchmark” in public-sector IPD.

The owner, designers, contractor and 17 subcontractors colocated in a 12,000-sq-ft trailer to speed problem-solving, while new mobile tablets and databases helped to expedite field quality control. Creative design balanced the three hospitals’ identities within the 878,000-sq-ft structure while allowing for shared support and diagnostic spaces along a common spine. Nearly 18 months after construction began, UCSF drastically changed the project by adding cancer-treatment services, which required re-scoping 78% of one component’s space. To control impacts, the team segregated out the revised area as a new project, complete with a dedicated project team.

When finished in 2014, the project claimed a $200-million reduction in budget from the initial estimate, even with the increased scope. The team says the facility is targeted to use 50% less power than the average U.S. hospital, and work included an “unprecedented” analysis of materials to screen out from patient rooms those that were toxic or unsustainably manufactured. While one judge noted the lack of safety detail, another said that, at 4.7 million man-hours of work, “you don’t expect perfection.”

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