McCarthy Building UC Davis Health Sacramento Expansion

Image courtesy of SmithGroup

By BARBARA HORWITZ-BENNETT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As part of an eight-year plan to double the size of its campus, McCarthy Building Companies topped out its $3.7 billion, 14-story tower for UC Davis Health in Sacramento.

Earning a 2024 AIA Healthcare Design award, the SmithGroup-designed progressive design-build project includes more than 330 beds, a five-story pavilion, operating rooms, an imaging center and new facilities for existing pharmacy and burn care units.

A unique pioneering feature is a Pandemic Mode patient room that provides additional airborne infection isolation capabilities through negative-pressure rooms that can be quickly activated to isolate outbreaks.

“In developing this new class of patient room, the California Tower design team has given us one of the most flexible buildings we’ve ever seen. UC Davis can adapt to the unforeseeable impacts of infectious diseases by increasing our capacity and preparedness,” stated Jill Tomczyk, executive director of strategic programs, UC Davis Health System. “Our world-class healthcare system can continue to provide the best care in a safe environment with little disruption to our operations, even in a crisis. It’s a game changer.”

Targeting LEED Gold, key energy efficiency measures include LED lighting, decoupled OR systems, airflow setbacks, heat recovery dishwashers, variable flow kitchen hoods and heat recovery chillers.