One million square feet. That’s the size of Sutter Health’s new California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) Van Ness Campus Hospital. If you unstacked its 12 stories and laid them side by side, it would more than cover Alcatraz Island. This flagship facility is a beautiful and inviting new home for what had been separate medical campuses, uniting on one site an adult acute care hospital, a women’s center, and a children’s hospital while maintaining the identity of each. It is, by any measure, a tall order.

To take on a project this massive — and massively complex — Sutter Health chose the Lean integrated project delivery (IPD) method, in which the architect, client, contractor, and subcontractors all work together in the same location, toward the same goals at the same time. Lean IPD provides a structure for collaboration and coordination between the owner, designers, and builders far beyond what can occur in the typical design-bid-build construction process.