Construction is officially underway for the $624-million expansion of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center.

The project, a joint venture between Providence St. Joseph Health and Cedars-Sinai, spans an approximately 13-acre site surrounded by Burbank Boulevard, Etiwanda Avenue, Clark Street, and the Ventura Freeway.  Plans call for approximately 350,000 square feet of new construction, highlighted by a six-story patient tower featuring 190 private rooms and a 600-car parking garage.

Perkins and Will is designing the campus, which will include a new outdoor garden which will connect the hospital's existing Women's Pavilion with the new patient tower.  Proposed features include landscaping, curved paths, and seating areas, with a California Sycamore Tree as the centerpiece of the courtyard area.

The new patient tower, rising approximately 120 feet in height, will be visible from the nearby freeway and surrounding neighborhoods.

In addition to ground-up construction, the modernization project also includes seismic upgrades to the hospital's existing Diagnostic and Treatment Center, as well a remodel and expansion of its its surgery, imaging, and gastrointestinal services.

Completion is anticipated in 2023, according to a news release.

The upgrades to the Tarzana hospital come in response to a state law which requires the replacement or seismic retrofit of all acute care facilities prior to the year 2030.  Other Los Angeles area hospitals undergoing similar projects include CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, which recently announced the topping out of its new patient tower in East Hollywood.