UCLA Harbor View Medical Center

Coordinating healthcare transformation at scale through Los Angeles County Public Works’ largest healthcare infrastructure program.

Bringing healthcare together for the community

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is undergoing a major transformation that is bringing state-of-the-art healthcare facilities to the communities it serves. The program replaces aging buildings with a modern, centralized healthcare campus designed around care delivery needs and patient expectations all while meeting California Senate Bill 1953 (SB 1953) seismic mandate along with the California Department of Health Care Access and Information’s (HCAI) Structural and Non-Structural Performance Category (SPC and NPC requirements.  As part of a joint venture supporting Los Angeles County Public Works, we have provided program management support, helping coordinate the largest capital program ever undertaken by the county. Since the program began in 2021, delivery has encompassed 35 individual projects, with approximately 90 percent of the overall program now complete.

Delivering a complex program without disrupting care

Delivering a program of this scale presented a unique challenge: construction and demolition had to occur within an active healthcare campus that needed to continue serving patients every day. Harbor-UCLA’s services were spread across a 73-acre campus, with departments housed in aging buildings that were difficult for patients to navigate and increasingly costly to maintain. Limited parking added another layer of complexity, creating challenges for patients, visitors and staff accessing care across the site.

At the same time, construction activity had to be carefully managed to minimize impacts on nearby neighborhoods and businesses in the Carson and Torrance communities. Maintaining campus operations, managing traffic and deliveries, coordinating utility shutdowns and protecting access to care was just as important as constructing new facilities. The challenge was magnified by the scale of the program itself: 35 projects being delivered concurrently in the heart of a functioning medical campus. Every construction decision had to account for patients, healthcare workers, emergency access routes and day-to-day hospital operations.

Despite more than $1 billion in construction activity, healthcare services continued uninterrupted throughout the program.

Managing 35 projects as one integrated program

Working alongside Los Angeles County Public Works, the Department of Health Services, our joint venture team and other stakeholders, we provided project managers, construction managers, project engineers and commissioning agents to support program delivery. Our role focused on integrating 35 individual projects into a single coordinated program while helping the county manage schedule, logistics and operational risks across an active healthcare campus.

The program includes a new 347-bed hospital, 373,000-square-foot clinic with teaching spaces, central utility plant, 7-level parking structure, multi-phase utility ductbank, a generator building retrofit, roadway improvements, and other critical infrastructure investments. Each project had its own delivery requirements, milestones and stakeholders, but decisions on one project could affect hospital operations, patient access or the progress of work elsewhere on campus. Maintaining visibility across the entire program was essential to balancing construction demands with the day-to-day needs of a functioning medical center. Achieving that level of coordination depended on strong relationships across the program team.

Building a culture of partnership

A defining feature of the program has been its strong culture of partnership. Early in delivery, project leaders established structured partnering sessions, open communication protocols and clear escalation procedures to address issues before they could affect progress. Teams were encouraged to resolve challenges through in-person conversations and collaboration, creating an environment built on trust and shared goals.

Community outreach was equally important. Quarterly open houses, public information forums and a dedicated hotline gave residents and local businesses opportunities to ask questions and stay informed about construction activities and potential impacts.

Successful delivery depended on understanding different perspectives. By encouraging teams to discuss issues face-to-face and work toward shared solutions, the program built relationships that helped maintain momentum across all 35 projects.

Improving access to care for decades to come

The result is a healthcare campus designed to improve access, convenience and patient experience for the community. Services that were once dispersed across multiple buildings are being consolidated into modern facilities, reducing the need for patients to navigate long distances across campus. A new 508,000-square-foot parking structure provides 1,508 spaces, addressing a longstanding access challenge for patients and visitors.

The program supports a broader shift in healthcare delivery, bringing outpatient services together in one location while replacing aging facilities with a new 347-bed hospital and modern infrastructure. For patients, families and staff, the transformation means easier access to care, more efficient services and facilities designed to support the community’s healthcare needs for decades to come.