Project category: Project in progress (December 2013)

Chief administrator: Kenneth L. Meehan, Executive Vice-President of Operations, (925) 947-5348

Firm: Ratcliff, (510) 899-6425

Design team: Crodd Chin, Project Designer; Christopher “Kit” Ratcliff, AIA, NCARB, LEED, Principal-in-Charge; Thomas Patterson, AIA, Project Manager; Bill Wong, AIA, CSI, CCS, LEED, Project Architect; Linda Mahle, AIA, Medical Planner; Lynn Drover, CID, IIDA, Interior Designer

Illustration: Crodd Chin, Ratcliff

Total building area (sq. ft.): 394,000 (new); 50,000 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $600 (new); $600 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $236,400,000 (new); $30,000,000 (renovation)


This project is the first phase of a total replacement program for this urban, tertiary care medical center.

Multiple client drivers and design goals were blended to create a universally accepted outcome. The client drivers included the replacement of patient beds that were not compliant with SB 1953 (California’s seismic safety legislation), overall increased bed capacity and single patient rooms, expanded Trauma Center/ED treatment space, additional OR capacity, and additional parking.


The design team wanted to include the basic intents proposed by the Institute of Medicine: providing care that is timely, safe, and effective in an environment that is efficient, patient-centered, and equitable. The ultimate challenge was to successfully tie the new building to the existing building and create a new, consolidated, functional environment.

The five-story (with basement) building and central utility plant encompass nearly 400,000 square feet. The new tower will include 202 new single patient rooms, increasing the licensed bed capacity by 85 beds. The Neonatal ICU has also been designed with single patient rooms in pod settings; each pod of four beds will have its own nurses’ station. All patient rooms are zoned to provide space for clinical support, the patient, patient hygiene, and the family. Nurses’ stations have all been decentralized, as have supply and nursing support areas, to reduce nurses’ travel distance and time.

Patients and visitors on the third through the fifth floors will have access to roof gardens. The garden adjacent to the Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit will include walkways with various surfaces to support patient rehabilitation.


Relocated and expanded ancillary and support functions will include: a new Trauma/ED Department with 44 treatment stations; three Interventional Radiology rooms; four new ORs; a new pre-/post-op and preadmission testing area; and a new Imaging Department. A single-place helistop and a dedicated high-speed, trauma-size elevator are planned for the roof of the building.

The exterior base is enveloped in limestone that transitions into clear glazing and corrugated metal near the roofline. The two-story lobby, with expansive clerestory windows, will feature a rotunda that is also a garden.

The interiors of the building, drawing from the colors of the regional environment, are designed to give a fresh new look to the facility. Blending selected materials and colors of the existing buildings will provide a unified look on the campus.