On a campus that has been in continuous operation since 1872, the project team delivered a 284-bed, nine-story general acute care hospital that features full diagnostic and treatment departments. The new facility doubles the emergency capacity of the previous program and includes upgrades to the existing central utility plant.

After permitting issues delayed the first phase of utility work, the project team worked with the City and County of San Francisco Dept. of Public Works to save five months on the project schedule.

Successfully integrating site utilities proved a significant challenge for construction crews as they encountered multiple existing structures and site unknowns. Collaborative use of building information modeling with core subcontractors allowed the team to evaluate various alternatives for routing active steam lines, IT conduits, 12-kV electrical power and sewer connections. The process allowed installation of utilities to continue ahead of schedule without interruptions to the existing adjacent hospital, saving more than $1 million.

Crews were able to start work on a portion of the 145,000-cu-yard excavation months in advance of the date in the original contract. The team estimates that the plan saved the project more than $5 million.

The new hospital includes an intensive care unit and neonatal intensive care unit; pediatric, obstetrics/gynecology, medical/surgery and forensic departments; and acute care beds for elderly patients. The trauma center contains ambulatory care services with resuscitation rooms, decontamination showers for mass casualties, CT scanners, general X-ray rooms and 52 emergency exam rooms.

The unique massing of the building includes a four-story rectangular podium and a five-story bed tower that comprises two semi-circular cylinders bisected diagonally by a parallelogram. The brick podium contains all diagnostic and treatment departments, while the glazed bed tower holds all inpatient beds and support spaces.

Triple pendulum bearing base isolators provide advanced earthquake-resistant technology, which will allow for continuous operations at the hospital after a major earthquake. The 115 base isolators, located at the podium level, slide up to 30 in. in any direction during an earthquake, which greatly helps to reduce seismic forces to the floor framing.

The project achieved LEED Gold certification and exceeded local hire and local business enterprise goals. It was officially opened to the public in May 2016.

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