The University of California, Davis Medical Center, California Tower

Project highlights: The University of California, Davis Medical Center, California Tower

• Architecture firm:  SmithGroup
• Owner:  The University of California, Davis
• Location: Sacramento, Calif.
• Category: D
• Project Site: Previously developed
• Building program type(s): Healthcare - hospital inpatient

• This 14-story hospital and five-story pavilion will help the University of California, Davis Medical Center deliver on its promise to improve lives and transform healthcare delivery in partnership with its community. Within a complex that has served the Sacramento area for nearly 150 years, this mission-driven project is organized around the concept of “confluence” that highlights the region’s diversity and the two rivers that form the city’s distinct topography.

  The overarching concept reveals itself at all scales, from the project’s siting, orientation, and facade expression to the interior architecture of its public and private spaces. The tower houses patient units, an integrated surgery and procedure platform, a level-one trauma emergency department, a clinical lab, and graduate medical education spaces. The adjacent pavilion contains staff and public amenities as well as additional clinical functions. 

The project replaced a large surface parking lot, and its footprint maximizes the site while simultaneously complementing the surrounding urban context and Sacramento’s street grid through a subtle bend in its volume that mirrors the street edge. At the bend on the tower’s east and west facades, art and architecture are integrated into a 10-story environmental art installation. The hospital commissioned a local artist who, drawing inspiration from the region’s diversity, created an abstract expression through the unique attributes of color and pattern of class. Additional experiential moments draw on the confluence of nature, daylight, and art to create an uplifting environment throughout.

The scale and composition of the pavilion lead to its presentation as a jewel box that sits at the foot of the tower. Its white, back-painted facade gives the building depth while adding elements of reflectivity and shimmer. On the sixth floor, an organically shaped roof trellis shades an expansive rooftop garden, while a drum containing the elevator core is wrapped in textured aluminum tubes that mimic the vertical lines of trees.

The project is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs and new healthcare positions, tangible benefits that anchor institutions bring to their communities. In addition, the project will further harness the medical center’s role as one of Sacramento County’s largest employers to boost community wealth-building and strengthen surrounding neighborhoods. When it is completed in 2030, the tower and pavilion will meet state mandates for seismic safety, ensuring superior care for Northern Californians for at least the next 50 years.