UCSF Institute of Regeneration Medicine

About This Project

Institute of Regeneration Medicine

Location: San Francisco, California

Architects: Rafael Viñoly

Contractors: DPR Construction, Smith Group

USGBC Sustainability Status: Achieved LEED Gold

About the Client: Nova’s client for this project is UCSF’s Capital Project and Facilities Management (CPFM) group, which is responsible for all design and construction on the three UCSF campuses. The user group is the Institute for Regeneration Medicine, whose chief function is the development and extension of stem cell research. A portion of the funding for this project is expected to come from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which is the agency responsible for distributing public funds raised by a recently passed initiative for stem cell research. Funding is also anticipated from private donors.

Project Description: This project housed the new headquarters for the Institute’s stem cell program. The 80,000 square feet, $85M base-isolated building will includes 96 lab benches, typical gasses, autoclaves, fume hoods, procedure rooms, tissue culture rooms, cold rooms, and a small vivarium. Additionally, the space also contains office and conference areas. Vibration isolation was a major design requirement due to the precision with which the principal investigators must conduct their projects. Further, the exceeded Title 24 by 20 percent as well as achieved a LEED Silver certification.

The project was located at UCSF’s Parnassus campus on a very steep site adjacent to the existing Health Sciences building and the Parnassus Services buildings. The proximity of the new project to these existing buildings drove the location of the new project to this very steep terrain. The Rafael Viñoly design addressed the difficult site by elevating the main floor of the project on a combination of piers and structural steel in lieu of engaging in deep excavation and extensive retaining wall construction, which would have been both costly and time-consuming.

Nova Partners’ Role: Nova Partners was selected by UCSF to be their construction manager on the Institute for Regeneration Medicine project. In the early portions of the project, Nova is developed the project schedules, provided estimating services, VE studies, and constructability reviews. In addition, Nova worked with UCSF to develop the Design/Build prequalification and Design/Build RFP documents that were used by the University to solicit proposals from Design/Build firms. Nova is also assisted in developing presentation materials used by the University to obtain approvals from the governing body — the Regents — of the University of California.