The $3.7 billion project promises to enhance health outcomes and support the socioeconomic fabric of the region.

Covering 910,000 square-foot, the California Tower will feature a 14-storey hospital facility and a five-storey pavilion, adding 334 private patient rooms designed to improve recovery and reduce infection rates. This state-of-the-art facility, connected to the existing Surgery and Emergency Services Pavilion, also includes two helicopter landing decks, advanced imaging and support services, and complex procedure rooms.

A hallmark of this progressive design-build project has been strategic planning and strong collaboration from the start, allowing various teams involved to navigate the project’s duration and scope more easily.

“We proactively developed a comprehensive staffing rotation strategy from the project’s inception, ensuring team wellbeing and continual growth,” said Bryan Anderson, executive vice-president, operations at McCarthy. “With such a big team working on a large healthcare project, culture is very important. We dedicated time early on focusing on our culture as a team and outlining how we want to behave, operate, communicate, and treat each other.”

UC Davis Health sees its duty as providing high-quality care, especially for underserved populations, and the California Tower project is an extension of this mission, offering a robust healthcare safety net and addressing the region’s hospitalisation needs. The project will create hundreds of construction jobs, make use of local vendors and, on completion, provide permanent employment opportunities, thereby contributing to community wealth-building and addressing social determinants of health.

“The mission of UC Davis Health is to improve the health and wellbeing of our community, and the California Tower project is a significant step towards achieving that goal,” said Jill Tomczyk, executive director of strategic programmes at UC Davis Health. “This state-of-the-art facility will increase our bed capacity to provide a flexible facility to handle all levels of specialised care. The most vulnerable populations will have access to high-quality healthcare services.”

Sustainability is also a major consideration, with the project on track for LEED Gold certification. The building’s design includes energy-efficient systems, indoor environmental quality enhancements, water use reduction, and rainwater management strategies, all contributing to a greener, more sustainable healthcare environment.

Promising to become a landmark on the local skyline, the tower complements the existing medical campus in regard to its architectural design, with unitised curtain-wall panels mixed with metal fins, and structural glass planes enhancing both aesthetic appeal and functional efficiency. This design is also expected to support patient privacy and lower energy consumption, creating a welcoming and sustainable environment.

“The California Tower synthesises innovative medical planning, state-of-the-art building technologies and thoughtful patient and staff-centred design to meet the healthcare needs of the future,” said Chee Keong Lin, vice-president and health studio leader at SmithGroup. “This transformative healthcare facility will provide a destination of healing and a vital resource for Sacramento and its surrounding northern California communities.”

The project is set for completion in 2030.