Monitoring Mission Bay: Work Continues on 4 Major Projects

By Thomas York

The first phase of construction at UCSF Mission Bay includes a 421,000-sq. ft. student housing center. The $113 million project will provide housing for 750 students. rendering courtesy of UCSF

Construction of UC San Francisco's new 43-acre, $1.5 billion Mission Bay campus remains on budget and on schedule. And that's no small feat, considering that it's the largest development in San Francisco since the building of the spacious Golden Gate Park in the late 1800s.

At build-out in 15 years, UCSF officials say the campus will feature 20 structures. So far, $820 million in new structures have been built or are under construction.

Just last December, Gilbane Building Co. of Providence, R.I., completed the 171,000-sq.-ft., $89 million Genetics, Developmental Biology and Behavior Sciences Building. Construction began in August 2001. Flad & Associates of Madison, Wis., with Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects of New Haven, Conn., were the designers. Cambridge CM was the construction manager.

UCSF is pushing forward on three other structures that make up Phase I of the project:

• A 156,000-sq.-ft, structure to house the $85 million Campus Community Center, a four-story cultural, educational, social and recreation facility with a garage for 600 cars. Construction, which began in November 2002, will be completed in August 2004. MBT Architecture of San Francisco and Legoretta + Legoretta of Mexico City are the architects. The San Jose office of Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley, Colo., is the contractor. The Oakland office of Turner Construction Co. is the construction manager.
  
  

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• A 152,000-sq.-ft., $100 million structure to house the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research, or QB3. Construction, which started in July 2002, will be completed in November 2004. The Berkely office of BCJ Architects is the architect. San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders is the general contactor. Turner Construction Co. is the construction manager.
  
  
• A 421,000-sq.-ft., $113 million project to serve as housing for 750 students and their families, plus retail and outdoor space. Construction, which began in June 2003, will be completed in June 2005. The San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Fisher Friedman Associates of Emeryville are the designers. Swinerton is the general contractor.

General contractor Rudolph & Sletten is erecting a 200,00-sq.-ft. research building, left, for the J. David Gladstone Institutes. The $72 million structure will be completed in September. photo by Majed

In addition, the J. David Gladstone Institutes, a private, nonprofit biomedical research institution affiliated with UCSF, is building a 200,000-sq.-ft., six-story research building adjacent to the UCSF Mission Bay campus, but within the 303-acre Mission Bay redevelopment boundaries.

The $72-million project, designed by the San Francisco office of NBBJ Architects, broke ground last year and will be completed in September.

Rudolph & Sletten is the general contractor.

Steven Wiensenthal, UCSF's official in charge of capital projects, said in a prepared statement that UCSF is developing a building environment that will "bring scientists together in new ways of collaboration."

"The master plan themes for all campus buildings and spaces are connectivity, collegiality, cohesiveness and context," he said.