John Muir Health Behring Pavilion Cancer Center

WHAT WE DID

Provided structural engineering services for John Muir Health’s 154,000-square-foot Behring Pavilion, a comprehensive outpatient cancer care facility in Walnut Creek, California.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

The John Muir Health Behring Pavilion is a major outpatient cancer care facility at the Walnut Creek Medical Center campus. The 154,000 square foot facility includes three levels plus a basement, service tunnel providing direct access to the Hospital and a separate service building for waste management yard and loading dock. The program incorporates a broad spectrum of specialized clinical functions, including radiation oncology, medical oncology infusion, pharmacy, X-ray, RF, CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, PET CT, ultrasound, and wound care. Notable building features include four partially buried concrete LINAC vaults, a large two-story atrium, a multi-level mat foundation, and a structural system consisting of two-way concrete flat slabs, concrete columns, and concrete shear walls.

A defining aspect of the project was the high level of technical and structural complexity. The design team had to address extreme hydrostatic pressures at the below-grade levels due to a high groundwater table resulting in substantial reinforcing demands and complex analytical requirements.  Degenkolb worked closely with the Geotechnical Engineers to limit the impacts to the project and designed a 5-foot-thick mat foundation across the entire site occurring at both the partial basement level and the lower basement servicing the tunnel. Another key challenge was the placement of interior shear walls given the desire for open, light-filled infusion floors. To address this, Degenkolb coordinated closely with the architect and user groups to develop a solution using pierced shear walls with complex detailing requirements at the exterior, within the infusion suites, helping maximize daylight penetration while preserving the open floor plans envisioned for the patient care environment.