February 27, 2014

A busy and joyous crowd gathered Tuesday in San Francisco’s Chinatown to celebrate another significant milestone in this city’s colorful neighborhood. The occasion was the topping off ceremony hosted by general contractor DPR Construction to mark the bolting of the last beam of a steel skeleton that in less than two years will be the new Chinese Hospital.

The $103 million project, designed by Jacobs Engineering Group, is planned for completion at the end of 2015, when the community and its leaders will mark the opening of this 80,000 square foot hospital. The structure that stood in its place until 2012 was a beacon for the Chinese community for almost an entire century. It was developed by the members of its community in the early 20th century to serve the local Chinese populace, which was denied broad health care access in San Francisco at the time. In 1923, a non-profit public benefit corporation, the Chinese Hospital Association, was created by fifteen community organizations in the neighborhood to raise funds for the 60-bed structure that opened its doors in April 1925.

Nearly fifteen years later, the hospital was the place where one of Chinatown’s most prominent sons, Bruce Lee, was born in 1940. In 1979, the hospital expanded into its second building through a fundraising effort by its trustees and funding received as a result of the Hill-Burton Act. The trustees were called once again to help the hospital enter its second century in San Francisco by raising funds for the new, state-of-the-art facility that will be the pride of the city and the neighborhood it serves.

Chinatown is the most densely-populated neighborhood west of Manhattan, with 15,000 residents living in a relatively small 20-square-block area, according to the City of San Francisco Planning Department. This has presented interesting challenges for the construction team, which has had to schedule its delivery timelines around food trucks and neighborhood vendors, commented Osman Chao, construction project executive. The challenges of the delivery scheduling was only matched by those presented by the proximity of the buildings that surround the project site; most are merely feet away from the new structure.

Yet, none of those construction site difficulties seemed to cloud the atmosphere as the San Francisco Police Department closed off the street for Tuesday’s celebration. The residents poured into the small city block beaming with pride and accomplishment for their community. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was there for the occasion, thanking the supporters and recalling countless hours spent raising funds and helping the project become a reality. He was accompanied at the event by Chinese Hospital CEO Brenda Yee, San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu and the president of Chinese Hospital’s board of directors, Tommy Ng.

It was a fitting celebration for the Chinese-American mayor and a milestone not only for the Chinese-American community but for also for the entire Bay Area, which today celebrates its diversity and prides itself on the multitude of cultures that color its fabric.

Photography courtesy of DPR; Rendering courtesy of the Chinese Hospital