Rady Children’s Hospital broke ground Tuesday for a billion-dollar, seven-story intensive care unit and emergency services pavilion.
The pavilion, scheduled to open in 2027, will be a 500,000-square-foot structure with a new emergency department, advanced pediatric, neonatal and cardiac intensive care units and operating rooms.
According to a Rady statement, the facility will feature “welcoming, child-friendly areas and contain large, single patient rooms with space for caregivers to stay.”
The pavilion will also include spaces with the ability to adapt for different purposes at different times as care models change in the decades to come.
The new tower is the largest construction project in the hospital’s nearly 70-year history and estimated to cost between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.
Construction costs will be supported by a $200 million pledge from Ernest and Evelyn Rady made in 2019.
“This is a generational transformation,” said Dr. Patrick Frias, president and CEO of the hospital. “We not only need to be sized and scaled appropriately to serve our community today, we need to be built for the future to meet the complex needs of families in the decades ahead.”
Frias was joined by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego City Councilman Raul Campillo at the groundbreaking .
City News Service contributed to this article.