SANTA ROSA, CALIF. — Construction is under way on the 182,300-square-foot Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa (SMCSR), a $284 million replacement hospital located on Chanate Road in Santa Rosa. The hospital will replace the original Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, which was built in 1938. The new hospital is slated to open in October 2014.
HGA Architects and Engineers, working closely with northern California-based Unger Construction and Sutter Health, designed the property using integrated project delivery (IPD) methods, a team-based approach that streamlines the construction process and reduces building costs.
“By using IPD methods, we created a platform to ensure that keystone patient experiences — such as lobby spaces and waiting rooms — as well as sustainability components, weren’t sacrificed due to budget constraints,” said Greg Osecheck, principal-in-charge of the project in HGA’s Sacramento office.
“With new technology such as 3-D building information modeling (BIM), our team was able to conceptualize together to reduce unknowns, create opportunities for cost savings, and design a facility that will serve the Sutter Health community for years to come.”
HGA has designed the new hospital to achieve LEED Silver certification with sustainable features such as a recycling program to reduce construction waste by 75 percent, an advanced building management system that can monitor airflow and exterior lighting and landscaping irrigation technology. The property’s campus will also feature bike paths, carpool preferential parking and electric vehicle charging stations. As a safety measure, the hospital will also implement code-compliant seismic design.
“These are just some of the ways Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa is being designed and built with conservation and sustainability in mind,” explains Tom Minard, senior project manager for Sutter Health. “These measures demonstrate the ongoing commitment of the team to enhance the environment of its new hospital and the community at large.”
The two-story, 84-bed hospital will have a Family Birthing Center, 40-bed medical/surgical unit, a 12-bay emergency department with a helipad, a 24-bed observation unit, an imaging department, six operating rooms, a 10-bed post-anesthesia unit, a 12-bed Intensive Care Unit, a meditation room and exterior gardens.
The old hospital didn't meet California's seismic safety standards, prompting the development of the replacement hospital. According to the SMCSR website: Under the Health Care Access Agreement between the County of Sonoma and Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, SMCSR is required to ensure meeting seismic compliance to state seismic safety standards. Retrofitting the Chanate buildings to meet state standards was not feasible.
The HGA team involved in the new hospital’s design includes Osecheck, Bill Whipple, Creed Kampa, Eric Jobes, May-Lin Chang, Aarti Lindahl, Hoa Tran, Brent Forslin, Bob Myers and Amy White. HGA has designed other hospitals in the area as well, including Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles and the Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley.
New developments such as Sutter Medical Center are few and far between across the country compared to the volume of construction prior to the recession, but there is reason to believe that activity is trending upward. In April, the Architecture Billings Index posted another positive score with a 50.4, making it the fifth consecutive month that the ABI has posted a positive score.
The ABI is a monthly index published by The American Institute of Architects (AIA), a Washington, D.C.-based association of architects with chapters around the country. A score greater than 50 indicates an increase in architecture billings, and a score below 50 signifies a decline.
“We are starting to hear more about improving conditions in the marketplace. There is a greater sense of optimism that there will be greater demand for design services,” said Kermit Baker, AIA’s chief economist. “But that [improvement] is not across the board, and there are still a number of architecture firms struggling. Progress is likely to be measured in inches rather than miles for the next few months.”
— John Nelson