UC Davis Health California Tower In Sacramento: First Look
©VStudios3D, Gaston Fernandez, [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: The new tower massing responds to the urban edge, while creating a courtyard between the new and existing structures, and includes a level six roof garden to integrate the healing effects of nature. The design consciously maximizes green space with both courtyard and elevated areas.
©VStudios3D, Gaston Fernandez, [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: The west plaza was created to provide a welcoming approach to the pavilion. The warmth of the wood in the materials creates a welcoming, calming and tranquil environment. A rooftop terrace garden on level six is equipped with a shade structure to help mitigate solar exposure.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: A breezeway provides a welcoming experience to the tower lobby and the west wing of the facility. The undulating ceiling and integrated lighting of the breezeway ceiling captures the overall design concept of Confluence.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: Upon entering the facility, patients and visitors are greeted with an open lobby. The lobby provides a hospitality experience to orient and inform patients, family, and visitors as they continue the journey through the building. The reception desk is located close to the entry to provide a positive first impression for those who visit. The use of contrasting colored art, material, and lighting at the reception area reinforces wayfinding.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: The multistory main lobby offers uplifting open spaces, and various waiting areas for patients and visitors. A clerestory enables the penetration of natural light into the space while elements of wood, natural materials, and neutral colors foster calm.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: The North Lobby features community art throughout the space to create a sense of belonging. UC Davis Health works with art consultants to reinforce the concept of diversity in its art installations.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: The emergency department has a designated pediatric waiting area that offers natural light, playful wall graphics, and a kid’s play area for children to actively engage and freely play, while also providing a positive distraction for family members.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: The new patient rooms are thoughtfully designed to enhance patient-centered care. The exterior reduces glare, while the unique incorporation of blue glass creates moments of color and delight from inside the room. The interior design, based on evidence-based research, emphasizes the importance of acoustic comfort, lighting, and temperature control for patient healing and outcomes. The selected colors and materials enhance the patient room, creating a true healing and hospitality environment.
©SmithGroup, Vince Jaramillo [email protected]
UC Davis Health California Tower: East plaza common areas surrounding the hospital’s bistro invite socialization and provide areas of respite.
UC Davis Health California Tower In Sacramento
UC Davis Health (Sacramento, Calif.), which has served the Sacramento region for more than 150 years, is making a $3.7 billion investment in the development of the new California Tower to transform its healthcare platform for a higher-acuity future.
The 14-story California Tower ensures maximum flexibility to accommodate future technologies and surge events, with a total of 334 beds, representing a mix of acuity-adaptable, intensive care, and medical/surgical bed types; 12 hybrid operating rooms; and two rooftop helipads.
Patient rooms prioritize adaptability for the future
More than 250 acuity-adaptable patient rooms are being designed to easily convert from medical/surgical to intensive care license in case of a surge including a pandemic, wildfire, or other large-scale disaster.
The California Tower blends into its urban neighborhood with a 10,000-square-foot rooftop garden, inclusive spaces and public-oriented programming, while its design concept, “Confluence,” reflects the diverse community and regional landscape. The Confluence concept celebrates and emphasizes the productive coming together of peoples, as well as the Sacramento and American Rivers, which form the city’s distinctive topography.
The idea of confluence is further reinforced by pedestrian movement across the site as well as through various grids of existing buildings and streets. The concept reveals itself at all scales of the project, from the siting, orientation, and façade expression to the interior architecture of public and private spaces, in colors and materials drawn from the region’s natural and cultural life.
UC Davis Health California Tower project details
Location: Sacramento, Calif.
Completion date: 2030
Owner: University of California Davis Health (UC Davis Health)
Total building area: 910,000 sq. ft.
Total construction cost: $1.2 million (project cost: $3.7 billion)
Cost/sq. ft.: $1,300
Architect: SmithGroup
Interior designer: SmithGroup
General contractor: McCarthy Building Companies Inc.
Engineers: Siegried (civil). Mazzetti (mechanical and plumbing) Silverman & Light (electrical), Degenkolb (structural)
Builder: McCarthy Building Companies Inc.
Art consultant: Deanna Marsh Studio
Medical equipment planner: McCarthy EQUIP
Project details are provided by the design team and not vetted by Healthcare Design.
