UCSF has released images of their proposed Helen Diller Medical Center, designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with HDR Architecture. The 15-story hospital will be constructed on UCSF’s Parnassus Heights campus, with 336 inpatient beds, diagnostic and treatment services, clinical support services, and public areas spread across the 900,000 square foot facility.

In addition to constructing a new hospital, the project will see the renovation of the existing Moffitt and Long hospitals, which when combined with the new building, give the campus a total of 682 inpatient beds. The upgraded capacity is in response to the region’s rising healthcare needs, with 3000 patients turned away from the campus hospital in 2019 due to a lack of beds. The renovations are also part of an effort to bring the entire site in line with earthquake safety standards.

“In designing this hospital, we are re-imagining the space around it, connecting park to peak to make a positive impact in people’s lives,” said Jason Frantzen, senior partner at Herzog & de Meuron. The project will also include an upgrade to surrounding pedestrian thoroughfares including both a tunnel and bridge across Parnassus Avenue to link the new hospital to the wider campus.

The new hospital will be clad largely in terracotta and curtain glazing on upper levels, while the entrance levels feature a timber finished soffit, glazed curtain walls with timber accents, and concrete columns. The landscape strategy includes an external garden on the new hospital's sixth level.

The project is currently open for public consultation until February 14th 2022. Construction is expected to begin in 2023, with the hospital entering operation by the end of 2030.

The hospital is the latest project by Herzog & de Meuron to generate headlines in recent months. In November of last year, the firm’s Tour Triangle in Paris prepared to break ground despite a last-minute effort to halt the project. Two months previous, the firm’s MKM Museum Küppersmühle in Duisburg, Germany opened to the public, while their M+ museum in Hong Kong also completed construction.