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When Brian Pratt reflects on the construction projects he and his team have completed for UC Irvine Health and the impact those projects have had on patients’ lives, he gets goosebumps. At the center of every project lies the patient experience and the satisfaction he and his team get when UCI Health patients feel even marginally better.
Last April he and his team completed and opened the Joe C. Wen and Family Center for Advanced Care followed by the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care Building in June of 2024. Both are part of an ongoing 13-acre, one million square-foot, $1.3 billion medical complex. When complete, it will also have a 144-bed hospital tower slated to open by the end of the year, an expanded residence hall, a research facility, and the all-new Mesa Court Community Center.
UCI’s cancer center features an outdoor terrace with 40 infusion bays overlooking the San Joaquin Marsh Reserve. “You can take your infusions outdoors overlooking the marsh, which in a Southern California climate is a wonderful experience, as opposed to being inside. Not to overstate it, but for me it’s really kind of profound, the impact on the community and the care we’re providing for patients. It’s almost immeasurable,” the campus architect and associate vice chancellor shares. The cancer will treat 33,000 patients in its first year. The 144-bed hospital tower will have 10 outpatient OR suites and a 24-hour emergency room. “It’s somewhat unique for a specialty hospital to have an ER because you have to have some generalists,” Pratt says.
What’s also unique about the cancer center and the hospital tower is that both are part of the first medical campus in the country—and possibly the world—powered solely by an all-electric central utilities plant. “Even the kitchen appliances and cooking equipment are all electric,” Pratt points out.
The facilities Pratt and his team are delivering on the UC Irvine campus are garnering attention and praise in architectural and construction circles. “Hospitals are emulating what we did here,” Pratt says. “We’re getting a lot of calls about how we did it, and the benefits and trade-offs. Sustainability is high priority for UC Irvine.”
Innovation doesn’t stop with sustainability. The new cancer center and hospital share a plaza, which has an inpatient and outpatient surgery center with operating rooms on either side. “That means they can share sterilization functions and humidification functions. Patient flows are better,” Pratt explains.
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While UCI’s frontline staff cure patients in person, a cadre of researchers are isolating cures for any number of diseases. Opened on May 1, the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building is a 200,000-square-foot research facility featuring state-of-the-art teaching spaces and labs. Whether on the front line or in the lab, it comes down to improving people’s lives. “We’re in a way changing the world with the research component. This is an academic medical center and a huge part of that is cancer and digestive specialty research. This research is groundbreaking and is literally saving people’s lives,” Pratt notes.
Research institutions are insular by nature, rarely inviting the public into their secure labs. To help forge a connection between the community and the university’s research efforts, UCI is building the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute Museum for California Art. “We think that’s kind of our differentiator from other museums out in the community,” Pratt says. The museum is slated to open in August of 2026.
Before accepting a position with UCI eleven years ago, Pratt was a principal at AECOM in Dallas, and before that a principal at Bailey and Wiley. Both positions laid the foundation for his work in higher education construction by teaching him to be collaborative, malleable, and to seek advice from campus leadership. At Bauer and Wiley, Platt worked on numerous projects for UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton, and Pomona College, among others. Pratt learned to lean on campus representatives because they brought valuable knowledge to the table, and he didn’t know everything. “I always think of my peers across the university and campus leadership as resources more than colleagues and peers,” Pratt shares. “How can they help inform the best decision-making for our team?” To this day he is always open to ideas, responsive to stakeholders, and proactive, all of which prevent him from being blindsided during a project.
The campus architect, who is committed to UC Irvine’s strategic plan, says his projects are “built in a high-stakes environment” and are delivered to the even higher expectations and aspirations of UCI’s stakeholders. He and his team are effectively in service to the institution’s leadership. “If we keep an eye on that, it motivates us to ensure that every new project that we do or any renovation that we do is vetted by the stakeholders,” Pratt notes. “We bring the stakeholders into the selection process of the teams doing the design and construction. They are fully in the tent.”
The buildings that Pratt and his team construct today must stand for the next 50 to 75 years, a fact that leaves no room for error. As Pratt explains, “We can’t have a misstep in the quality, in the flexibility, in the ability to support the academic and research missions of the university. We must make sure that every step we take is measured and thoughtful and considerate of the stakeholders’ wants and needs.”
Hathaway Dinwiddie has a distinguished legacy of delivering building projects as a Design Builder, General Contractor, and Construction Manager. Ranked in the Top 100 General Contractors in the U.S., we provide General Contracting, Project Planning, and Management services. Our expertise encompasses Academic, Commercial, Life Sciences, Research, Healthcare, Civic, Art & Museum, Housing, Hospitality, and Interior projects. With more than a century of experience, we bring industry-best capabilities, people, and advanced technologies to every project, inspiring innovation. From the moment we engage, we collaborate, plan, and think ahead. This “Whatever it Takes” attitude defines every client relationship and work product.
