DPR Construction Tops Out Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Patient Care Pavilion

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 28, 2012 — DPR Construction recently topped out of the $300-million Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Patient Care Pavilion, signifying completion of structural erection of the 250,000-square-foot ground-up project. DPR is the general contractor for the new facility that broke ground in 2010 and is scheduled to open in 2014.

“Today marks the celebration of a traditional construction milestone for what has been anything but a traditional project,” said Jay Widdifield, project manager for DPR Construction. “The patient care pavilion is being built on a 1.5-acre site in the middle of the current Oakland urban hospital campus, which has remained fully operational during construction, and the new facility will be attached to existing hospital buildings on three sides and seven different floors.”

The Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Patient Care Pavilion, which is targeting LEED silver certification, will consist of two major components: a patient care tower and a basement and rooftop central utility plant. The tower will stand 11 stories tall, with two additional floors underground. The patient care pavilion will also feature:

238 acute-care beds
Private rooms with panoramic views of the Bay Area
A new 1,067-space parking garage built by Overaa Construction (opening in May, 2012)
Family friendly accommodations
State-of-the-art technology and design
Additional green space

The 12-party Integrated Project Delivery team used Lean Construction methodologies extensively in constructing the facility including:

Target Value Design, a practice in which cost and constructability inform the overall design process.
Last Planner, a system that includes pull-planning and scheduling, and creating a network of commitments.

The IPD team also engaged in a high level of pre-construction services including Virtual Design and Construction and Building Information Modeling to help identify and solve building challenges in advance of actual construction. For example, DPR’s use of laser-scanning uncovered an eight-inch dimensional difference between the team’s original model and the actual size of the site, saving an estimated $500,000 in future change orders, as the discrepancy was caught early in the design process.
DPR is also building the $320-million Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley in nearby Castro Valley, Calif., which is scheduled for completion in December 2012.

Photo: DPR Construction