TORRANCE, CALIF. — McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is constructing the $300 million Torrance Memorial Medical Center Replacement Tower on the existing medical center site at 3330 Lomita Blvd. in Torrance, outside Los Angeles. McCarthy, which is the largest American-based healthcare builder in the U.S., has completed more than $2.4 billion in healthcare work in Southern California alone.
The company is the general contractor for the 256-bed replacement project at Torrance Memorial, which entails construction of a seven level, 398,350-square-foot patient tower as well as a basement to house a central utility plant and a tunnel connecting the existing hospital to the new facility. Twelve new elevator systems and two exit stairs will be installed, and a 2,770-square-foot Emergency Generator building along with underground fuel oil storage tanks will be constructed on site.
Exterior rendering of the nearly 400,000-square-foot, $300 million replacement tower at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.
Before construction could begin, McCarthy re-routed existing underground utilities servicing the tower around the new tower’s footprint. A new entrance to the existing facility was also built to allow for patient access from a new direction while the tower is under construction.
“Because of the project’s unique challenges, construction will be multi-phased to alleviate disruption to the existing facility,” said Erik Chessmore, McCarthy project manager. “We will be setting the new tower’s central plant equipment in the basement prior to steel and concrete topping out. Furthermore, due to the hospital’s proximity in an operational urban site with limited access, a detailed logistics plan will be utilized and close coordination with the hospital and subcontractors will be required during erection and build-out of the tower.”
Designed by HMC Architects, the state-of-the-art tower will be the new front door of the medical center, and the centerpiece of the campus. Being built with a steel frame atop a mat foundation, the tower’s exterior skin will be a combination of metal panel, precast concrete, plaster, and curtain wall. The combination of skin materials for the tower’s façade not only responds to the correct solar orientation to reduce energy consumption, but it also gives the tower a contemporary and elegant aesthetic.
The new tower represents the future of patient care by increasing, consolidating, and reconfiguring the inpatient, outpatient and acute care functions of the medical center campus to better serve patients and staff. The hospital’s design is focused on patient care as well as the comfort of visiting family members.
The “healing garden” at the newly constructed Torrance Memorial Medical Center.
In addition, the project incorporates significant sustainable features equivalent to the same standards required of a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) silver certified structure. Some of the eco-sensitive design features include: minimizing environmental impacts by incorporating optimal building orientation to reduce solar heat gain; individual temperature controls to reduce energy; white roof to minimize heat gain; low-level perimeter building lighting to reduce light pollution; recycled content and environmentally friendly finishes; as well as the use of water efficient landscaping and a healing garden to reduce the “heat island effect” from excessive use of hardscape.
McCarthy will also use sustainable construction methods including recycling approximately 80 percent of construction waste; maintaining proper indoor air quality; and utilizing local labor.
Excavation and shoring for the new construction is nearly complete as the tower’s structural steel is scheduled to begin in October 2011. Topping out of the structural steel is slated for February 2012, with project completion by November 2014.
— Dan Marcec