New San Mateo Medical Center campus replaces aging buildings with safer unified design
San Mateo County, California – Officials in San Mateo County celebrated the end of a major restoration and expansion that has turned the San Mateo Medical Center into a contemporary health care campus that will serve patients, staff, and the community for many years to come.
The multiyear project replaces two aging hospital buildings from the 1950s that no longer met California’s seismic safety requirements. Now, a single, more accessible campus brings together medical treatment, public health services, social supports, and administrative offices. Local leaders said that the opening was a big step forward for public health and a much-needed enhancement for people who rely on the County’s safety-net services.
The facility is located on 37th Avenue in San Mateo and is home to the County Coroner’s Office, the Public Health Laboratory, and a lot of other services that help people across the county. The medical facility is the County’s main safety-net hospital. It takes care of those who don’t have health insurance, don’t possess sufficient insurance, or can’t get to private health systems.
County officials stated that the makeover is part of a larger plan to make it easier for people to get care by cutting down on the number of places they have to go. Now, services that the public may use, such billing, patient records, and help with health insurance, are all in one spot near the main entrance. This makes it easier for visitors to take care of their needs. The idea is similar to what is planned for future County health facilities, such as the North County Wellness Center, which is set to open in 2026.
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The building work consists of an 87,000-square-foot administration building, a new link building that will be the main entrance and conference area, and modifications to around 35,000 square feet of the existing hospital. Improvements to the site made some areas of the hillside leveled to make it easier for people to walk and use wheelchairs. There also built 250 parking spots, quadrupled the number of ADA-compliant parking spaces, and provided electric vehicle charging stations. A new bus stop is now at the main entrance, and the landscaping design calls for four new plants to replace each tree that was cut down.
The site has two new cafeterias, classrooms for training and instruction, outdoor meeting areas, more space for the Coroner’s Office, and a cutting-edge Biosafety Level 3 public health lab. The design included solar panels, materials that were responsibly sourced, and a goal of getting LEED Silver certification.
The $217 million renovation went ahead despite problems including the pandemic and bad weather. The hospital was open the whole time, making it one of the most complicated building projects in County history.
