UCSF to Spend $1.3 Billion on Medical Facilities

SAN FRANCISCO — A $1.3 billion construction project at University of California, San Francisco, will result in a new children’s hospital and a second hospital that serves women and cancer patients at its Mission Bay campus.

The 869,000-square-foot project will include two towers, a helipad, energy center, parking garage, underground tunnel and pedestrian bridge. Designers of the project will seek LEED Gold certification.

Diagnostic, intervention and support services will be offered at each facility and robotic and imaging technology will be used during surgery. The children’s hospital will include 183 beds, the cancer hospital will have 70 beds and the women’s hospital will have 36 beds. Ambulatory and specialty care services will be available at each hospital.

The children’s hospital will be the signature building for the campus and will be built with glass that twists from the building’s frame. Prismatic glass elements will amplify color throughout the building’s interior.

Three two-story, sky-lit lobbies will provide daylighting and views of nature. The exterior of the facility will be fitted with glass and stone.
A plaza entrance to the women and cancer hospital will provide a space for gathering, outdoor dining and access to public transit. A public park will be incorporated into the design for patients, faculty and guests.

An energy center, incorporating an open service yard, will feature a two-story window tilting toward the street to display the facility’s metrics system and indoor equipment. The pedestrian walkway will be landscaped, and a helipad will be at the north end of the campus.

San Francisco-based architecture firm Anshen + Allen and architectural firm William McDonough + Partners designed the campus using green features to help obtain LEED Gold certification. Environmentally friendly concepts include solar shading of west-facing facades, rooftop gardens and a display showing real-time information about the facility’s energy use.

The UCSF Community Advisory Group began planning the project in 2001 with support from the community, faculty and staff. The group consists of neighborhood, labor, ethnic and business leaders. The group held more than 45 meetings including group members, community members and its subcommittee, the Hospital Replacement Community Action Team.

Planning stemmed from the need to increase inpatient and outpatient services, improve outdated facilities and comply with earthquake building standards.

The children’s hospital can no longer hold the number of patients who require services and the current facility cannot be expanded, so the new hospital will operate in conjunction with the existing facility.

“The construction of a medical center at Mission Bay will allow us to meet growing patient demand for services and strengthen our ability to rapidly translate research findings into new medical advances that directly benefit patients,” says Mark Laret, chief executive officer of UCSF Medical Center.

Scientists and clinicians at the facility will work to translate research findings into therapies and cures. The treatments will be shared throughout the UCSF community and the scientific world.

Pediatric research has expanded in recent years, and the new facility will allow room for new projects to begin. California is projected to need at least five more children’s hospitals by 2020 to accommodate the statewide increase in pediatric patients, according to reports.

The cancer unit is also an expansion of the existing Helen Diller Family Cancer Building. The center is the first step in creating a cancer research center and will work in conjunction with biomedical advances made at the Helen Diller center. Women’s services were added to complement the children’s center and will include women’s cancer and gynecological surgery services.

The project is still in the design phase and no start-date has been set for construction, however, the project is expected to be completed in 2014. This phase is part of a 15-year project at the Mission Bay campus that began in 1999 and will include 20 buildings when complete.

Funding for the children’s hospital and women and cancer hospital will partly come from a $500 million capital campaign. Remaining funds will come from medical center reserves, debt financing and private support.