Structure Type: Canopy
Project Scope: Design, Engineering, Installation, Manufacturing, Procurement
Material: PTFE, AESS Steel
Location: Irvine, CA
Completion Date: December 2025
Owner: UCI Health
General Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction
Architect: CO Architects
The UCI Health — Irvine campus is a transformative healthcare development designed to serve coastal and south Orange County residents with advanced medical services. The complex features a seven-story, 350,000-square-foot acute care hospital and a five-story, 220,000-square-foot ambulatory care and cancer center (ACC). The project, led by UCI Health in partnership with CO Architects and Hensel Phelps Construction, delivers patient-centered care in a modern, technologically advanced environment.
The campus was designed to blend high-tech care with the healing power of nature. Connecting the hospital and ACC is an outdoor plaza incorporating nine tensile fabric canopies, giving patrons access to the region’s Mediterranean climate but relief from the Southern California sun. Their design utilizes inverted cone structures with complex geometries, creating high-stress concentrations at the fabric’s clamping connections. ETS worked alongside the architect to devise custom concealed conical and rounded caps to achieve the desired geometry and meet structural requirements. ETS sourced the PTFE fabric from Japan and oversaw its manufacture in China. Architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS) was hot dip galvanized and coated with a three-part paint system by a domestic vendor partner. At the project site, ETS erected canopies on finished floors of the adjacent buildings — requiring extensive coordination with other trades — and transfered them to their final location via spider and tower cranes.
Building entrances integrate point-supported glass canopies and overhead trellis structures. In partnership with Elite Glazing Group, ETS developed four point-supported glass canopies utilizing ultra-clear low-iron glass, point-fixed by stainless steel spider fittings supported by AESS. Prior to installation, specialty testing of six glass panels was conducted to confirm HCAI seismic compliance and safety, including shear and tensile loads at temperatures up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. ETS also sourced and installed five trellis roof structures throughout the campus to add sun shading and visual impact. Each is clad with sheet-metal louvers finished with a fluoropolymer powder coating.
ETS sourced all steel components to be Buy Clean California Act (BCCA) compliant, lowering the project’s embodied carbon emissions. The hospital is pursuing LEED platinum certification, the highest level awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council for sustainability, and is the first all-electric acute care hospital in the nation.
