San Francisco General Hospital, Learning Center / Simulation Laboratory
San Francisco, California

AckerleyLDA Architecture was selected by the San Francisco Department of Public Works, at the request of San Francisco General Hospital. Joint venture partner LDA Architects had previously completed programming and master planning services for the new SFGH Learning Center which had been enthusiastically received by campus facilities management and the leadership of this ground-breaking new way to deliver simulation training programs and didactic educational programs as a part of the Hospital’s training and continuing education system.

The designated site for the new Learning Center was the second floor of Building 30; one of a series of older, historic buildings constructed of brick, concrete and steel. AckerleyLDA had already performed successfully on the campus’s other similar structures; Buildings 80 & 90.

In a series of interactive, interdisciplinary design sessions with the SF Department of Public Works, SFGH Facilities Management, and Learning Center senior leadership, AckerleyLDA quickly developed a design that would minimize construction time and disruption to other building tenants, while managing project cost. AckerleyLDA made full use of our unique, contractor-based, in-house constructability consultant to establish a plan for making these improvements that balanced these often conflicting demands to meet the Learning Center’s need to complete all design & engineering, regulatory permitting, contractor acquisition, and construction in under 9 months.

Color is used extensively, throughout the facility to lead visitors to their designated training areas, to keep fire exits clear, and to separate public from private areas of the Learning Center. AckerleyLDA located administrative and management offices behind a glass wall to provide privacy to Learning Center staff, to share the abundant natural light from windows in the offices, while promoting security by allowing monitoring of visitors as they enter the facility. Working with maintenance staff, materials and assemblies are a mixture of durable materials in use elsewhere on campus while unique elements set the Learning Center apart as a unique, cutting-edge facility that will serve SFGH and UCSF well into the future.

Despite the DPW direction to complete the project under no less than 6 separate work orders from 5 separate contracting entities, the project appears likely to beat both the original Estimate of Probable Construction Cost and the client’s budgetary limitations, while finishing well ahead of schedule.