SAN FRANCISCO—A supergroup of construction firms has formed to build a new hospital for the University of California, San Francisco. The trifecta of companies—Herrero Builders, Inc., The Boldt Company and Webcor—will be working together under the joint moniker Herrero Boldt Webcor on the university hospital project, to be located at the university’s Parnassus Heights campus.

The hospital project, which will be called the Hospital for the Future, is being designed jointly by architecture firms Herzog & de Meuron and HDR, and will utilize Lean project delivery principles to meet the project goals.

The healthcare project will be realized under an integrated form of agreement (IFOA), meaning that the designers, builders, owners and other vested parties will all sign onto a single integrated contract for the hospital project. Collectively, Herrero Boldt Webcor boasts nearly two dozen completed IFOA projects in Northern California’s healthcare sector over the course of the last decade.

In a recent statement, David Thomack, executive member for Herrero Boldt Webcor and group president for The Boldt Company, said that the supergroup of construction firms will make UCSF’s 21^st century healthcare mission a reality in the years to come.

“With the combined experience of building or renovating over 1.8 million square feet of advanced acute care hospital campuses in San Francisco over the last decade, we’re honored that UCSF has brought us on board to help lead their integrated team of designers and builders,” Thomack said. “Working in dense urban locations and marrying existing structures with new construction is the type of complex environment in which we excel.”

The Hospital of the Future will entail nearly one million square feet of new healthcare space and incorporate renovations of two existing buildings. The design phase is expected to be finished sometime in 2021, with construction projected to be completed in 2023.

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SAN FRANCISCO—The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has opened the Precision Cancer Medicine Building (PCMB) as the centerpiece of its cancer care practice at the university’s Mission Bay medical campus. 

The 170,000-square-foot facility will integrate research and clinical care at a state-of-the-art facility encompassing 120 examination and consultation rooms, 47 infusion bays for chemotherapy and 19 types of imaging services. The Precision Cancer Medicine Building will also include 20 consultation rooms for supportive programs such as genetic counseling, nutrition and dietary consultations, social work, psycho-oncology, complementary medicine and symptom management. 

PCMB features a patient resource center with specialized areas for yoga, exercise classes, physical therapy, support groups and financial counseling as well. 

Design firm Stantec provided design and programming services, as well as served as integrated design delivery partner for the project, with San Carlos, California-based Rudolf & Sletten serving the project as general contractor.

Stantec’s plan for the inside and outside of the building included what the company described as its four “design principles”: precision, transparency, integration and activation.  “Precision” means utilizing a combination of glass and metal to create fluid coupling.  Furthermore, windows and walls are angled such that the eye is naturally drawn toward them.  “Transparency” in Stantec’s paradigm means that patients and visitors will be able to see into and out of the PCMB, thus removing some of the mystery and “humanizing” cancer treatment.  “Integration” means that the facility strives to create a unified patient experience, and “activation” is defined as Stantec’s belief in making the building “visually accessible” to the community. 

The design firm has said that PCMB will deliver “precision medicine,” wherein treatment is tailored as best as possible to the individual patient based on his or her genetic information, i.e., the “signature” of each tumor.  In the PCMB layout, top researchers, oncologists, surgeons and other clinicians will work together under one roof to effect speedy treatment delivery to all patients. 

“From screening and counseling, to communication and education, through targeted treatments, it is the entire journey that makes up a patient’s personalized experience with cancer,” Rory Picklyk, vice president in Stantec’s Buildings practice, said in a recent statement about his firm’s paradigm as it relates to the new California project.  “PCMB is the physical culmination and reflection of that journey, and we are proud to have led its design.  This is a building set to redefine precise cancer care—not only for San Francisco residents—but nationally, and we are humbled to play a part in bringing it to life.”

The UCSF Mission Bay medical campus includes UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital and UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital.  The new PCMB facility will serve approximately 700 patients per day, Stantec said. 

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EYP is a leader in education, government and sustainable design, and WHR is the design firm of choice for Houston’s Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world. Both EYP and WHR have experienced a surge in growth over the past year. In 2013, EYP grew by 20 percent and opened six new offices, and WHR grew by 70 percent. The merger will bring together 530 professionals from both firms.

EYP has eight offices in the U.S. and has completed projects in more than 100 countries. Prior to the merger with WHR, EYP expanded its family of practices last year with the addition of The Weidt Group, an energy consulting and software firm with offices throughout the Midwest. WHR is the third acquisition for EYP since the firm sold a minority stake to a private equity firm in 2011 and started a growth strategy, according to the Albany Business Review.

WHR, with additional offices in Dallas and Copenhagen, currently employs approximately 170 staff. WHR is responsible for several of the largest current health care projects in the country, according to Architectural Record’s data on health care construction projects between January 2013 and February 2014.

Tom Birdsey, AIA, president and CEO of EYP, said the merger will strengthen the company’s geographic visibility and service offerings.

“EYP and WHR are united by passion and purpose, fueled by research and focused on furthering our clients’ missions. They trust us to help them make well-informed decisions that will advance their vision and create lasting value,” Birdsey said in a statement. “Understanding the intersection of technology, human experience and the natural environment is key to building a more sustainable world and advancing a new paradigm for our profession. Our merger positions us to better help our clients negotiate this challenging landscape, and our increased national visibility will allow us to further expand our reach and continue to provide valued insight for clients in the health care, higher education and energy industries, among others.”

While the merger will help EYP extend its business to the Southwest, WHR will be able to gain more visibility in the East Coast market.

“As design professionals, we are uniquely positioned to help preserve and advance our culture in ways that enable individuals to prosper, including the transformation of the health care experience,” said David Watkins, FAIA, chairman of WHR, in a statement. “The culture and expertise WHR shares with EYP gives us the ability to help our clients better achieve their missions. I look forward to what this partnership holds for our future growth. As two design thought leaders, our strategic alliance offers public and private sector clients greater access to specialized expertise and expanded resources. The knowledge, tools and services EYP provides will be a crucial asset in helping clients embrace sustainability and collaborative design excellence.”

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The new firm will be known as HMC+Substance Design and will operate from its existing studio in downtown Phoenix.

Earlier this year, HMC Architects merged with San Francisco-based Beverly Prior Architects, forming HMC+Beverly Prior Architects.

The Consortium’s founding principals Donna Barry and Jose Pombo will join HMC’s corporate leadership with Barry serving as design principal and Pombo as associate principal, senior project manager.

Randy Peterson, president and CEO of HMC Architects, said that having started his career in Phoenix in 1983, the merger reflects the spirit of homecoming for him.

“By joining forces with Substance Design, we are gaining the talent and resources of an emerging design firm who shares the same commitment to client service that we value so much at HMC,” he said. “Donna brings a passion for design that is consistent with our firm’s culture. I look forward to her being a key leader in our continued growth in Arizona.”

Substance Design Consortium will merge with HMC’s existing Tempe, Arizona office, led by Principal-in-Charge Erik Hanson and Design Principal David De Valeria. Hanson will continue to manage the combined downtown Phoenix studio.

“The new partnership is mutually beneficial,” Hanson said. “By combining our employees, we’re gaining new perspectives and a great energy that will inform our clients and projects moving forward.”

With the merger, Substance Design Consortium can offer clients planning, architecture, and interior design services in new markets, including healthcare, justice, commercial and civic design.

Notable projects by Substance Design Consortium include the iconic Hayden Flour Mill in Tempe, Ariz., Phoenix Theatre Mainstage, and the Glendale Community College Public Safety Science facility.

“We believe this will open possibilities to us that are increasingly reserved for larger local and national firms and we look forward to successfully competing head to head with the biggest and best in our market,” Barry said.

Barry and Pombo founded Substance Design Consortium in 2007 and have focused their practice on creating high-performance architectural solutions that maximize program requirements while responding to the natural environment.

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