STANFORD, CA – A massive rebuilding project at Stanford Medical Center campus, expected to take at least a dozen years and cost $1 billion to $2 billion, is taking its initial steps toward becoming a reality.
Several hearings have been conducted on the 1.3 million square-foot project, initially proposed last August. The project already has benefitted from two multi-million-dollar gifts to finance specific aspects and related research.
Stanford is in the early stages of its Medical Center Renewal Project, which would consist of a new adult hospital to replace Stanford Medical Center, expanding the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital on the Stanford campus and replacing the Stanford School of Medicine, said Shelley Hebert, executive director of public affairs for Stanford Hospital & Clinics.
The project is now being reviewed by Palo Alto, Calif. officials after Stanford staff introduced the design development process to the city’s architectural review board in late December. Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard each have selected architects for their projects.
The replacement projects would enable the facilities to achieve seismic safety standards enacted by the state of California. In addition, officials say the projects will help facilities achieve needed increases in capacity and improve the quality of care.
Stanford hopes to gain city approval for the project, including environmental impact approval, this year and begin construction in 2010. Work on the hospital is expected to be completed by 2015.
The project will be completed in stages, with all phases of construction expected to be completed by 2025, Hebert said.
The project is already gaining financial support from area philanthropists.
Last month, John and Regina Scully announced a $20 million contribution to the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital & Clinics. The gift from the San Francisco couple will help build a new facility to house research programs for stem cell and regenerative medicine research at the medical school, as well as build space at the new Stanford Hospital.
“We are attracted to the big problems with the best potential for significant improvement in the human experience,” said John Scully, managing director of SPO Partners & Co., an investment management firm based in Mill Valley, Calif. “Stem cell understanding should have a dramatic impact in what many feel will be the century of biological sciences.”
The gift will be devoted in part to construction of a medical school research building known as Stanford Institutes of Medicine 1, which will primarily house laboratories in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. The school hopes to break ground on the project later this year.
In November, Stanford Hospital received a $27.5 million pledge from Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley technology executive, and his wife Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, a member of the Stanford University faculty, for a state-of-the-art emergency department.