As part of its master plan to reimagine its entire campus over the next decade, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego in California broke ground on the largest construction project in its nearly 70-year history: a seven-story, 500,000-square-foot Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services Pavilion.
Opening its doors in 2027, the structure will house a new emergency department, advanced pediatric, neonatal and cardiac intensive care units and operating rooms. It will feature welcoming, child-friendly areas and contain large, single patient rooms with space for caregivers to stay. The pavilion will also include flexible spaces with the ability to adapt for different purposes at different times as care models change in the future.
The new tower, estimated to cost between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, will house 140 intensive care unit beds and four operating rooms and will double the size of the emergency department, from 46 rooms to 86, and expand the space dedicated to providing behavioral health services.
Interior spaces will be themed in distinct regions: high desert, low desert and coastline with corresponding animals that inhabit those habitats such as sea turtles, jackrabbits, walruses, seahorses, whales and bighorn sheep. Outside spaces will feature a park-like esplanade connecting the campus with pleasing landscaping, open spaces and seating areas for families and staff.
Construction costs will be supported by a $200-million pledge from Ernest and Evelyn Rady made in 2019. Part of an existing structure built in the 1950s will be demolished to make way for the new pavilion.
The seven levels of the structure will each serve a different function:
- Level 1: café and kitchen
- Level 2: radiology
- Level 3: emergency department
- Level 4: cardiothoracic intensive care unit
- Level 5: neonatal intensive care unit
- Level 6: pediatric intensive care unit
- Level 7: shell space for future needs
- Helipad on the roof
