Hospitals do not have the luxury of ordinary project risk.
NYA’s rigorous analysis delivers unprecedented insight early in design, bringing construction costs into focus far earlier than traditionally possible, minimizing redesign, and revealing opportunities to eliminate unnecessary steel, concrete, and foundation costs.
NYA combines decades of healthcare experience, advanced seismic analysis, and practical engineering judgment to deliver structural solutions that achieve demanding performance objectives, preserve architectural intent, and improve constructability.
Close collaboration with architects, contractors, and engineering partners aligns design objectives with construction requirements, facilitates informed decisions, and enables the effective resolution of complex challenges.
Strategic coordination with HCAI, phased review strategies, and timely resolution of technical challenges support efficient approvals, maintain project momentum, and reduce the risk of costly delays.
NYA’s Advanced Rapid Concept Studies (ARCS) bring Design Development-level precision into the earliest design stages. Combining advanced technology with extensive hospital experience, ARCS reveals cost and performance implications long before critical decisions are made.
Conceptual illustration of anticipated structural cost ranges.
ARCS rapidly explores multiple structural systems, including moment frames, braced frames, dampers, and base isolation, allowing the team to compare alternatives and identify the best approach while design flexibility is greatest.
NYA’s in-house computational capabilities and nonlinear time-history analysis deliver detailed seismic performance, material quantities, and reliable cost information typically unavailable until later design phases, providing a sound basis for early decisions.
Developed at Stanford Adult Hospital, ARCS enabled cost-informed comparisons of structural systems with and without base isolation. At UCSF Helen Diller Hospital, it informed the selection of a damped moment frame balancing seismic performance, architectural flexibility, and budget.
Simplified, low-resolution models of soil behavior
Often results in overly conservative earthquake forces
Requires more steel, concrete, and foundation construction than necessary
Sophisticated, high-resolution model of how soil behaves during an earthquake
Reveals savings that simpler models miss, allowing for a more efficient structural design
Led by world leading expert, Professor Gazetas, responsible for pioneering the field
20% Reduction in foundation forces
SSI also reduced floor accelerations by up to 30%, resulting in substantial construction savings without adding physical components or affecting the schedule.
$2.8M in Savings
Advanced SSI reduced foundation costs by 15% and core-wall concrete by up to 35%, while recovering approximately 3,000 square feet of usable space.
An integrated, multidisciplinary team that collaborates to develop innovative solutions
Pioneering capabilities in SSI, advanced seismic analysis, and performance-based design
Decades of collaboration with architects, engineers, contractors, and HCAI that build trust and alignment
Proprietary intelligent automation systems, developed by our in-house AI engineers, that compress design time under licensed engineer oversight
HCAI’s approval for an alternative method of compliance reduced structural steel quantities at UCSF, delivering more than $2 million in savings while lowering embodied carbon.
An approved alternative concrete mix helped UCSF advance its carbon reduction goals and contributed to HCAI PIN 81.
HCAI’s confidence in NYA’s technical expertise creates opportunities to pursue unconventional solutions, supported by rigorous analysis and a clear path to regulatory approval.
At UCSF Helen Diller Hospital, NYA secured HCAI approval for all 24 alternative methods of compliance submitted, enabling innovative solutions that reduced construction costs.
NYA combines advanced analysis with proven engineering judgment to reduce the risk of redesign, added cost, and delay, as demonstrated on two of our flagship projects: The Stanford Adult Hospital and UCSF’s Helen Diller Hospital.
Greater shaking transmitted to the building and its systems.
Reduced shaking transmitted to the building and its systems.
Stanford’s vision called for four patient towers cantilevered nearly 30 feet beyond their supporting columns, creating demanding structural and vibration challenges.
NYA had to carefully balance the weight of the projecting floors, control vibration, and integrate the towers with the hospital’s seismic system. Through advanced analysis and engineering judgment, NYA developed a multi-story steel framing solution that met these competing demands.
For Stanford, the result was the realization of its ambitious vision without compromise.
Stanford’s atrium welcomes patients and families with daylight and open space. To achieve the nearly 120-foot skylight without bulky framing or columns, NYA designed a shallow grid of slender steel pipes. Advanced analysis allowed NYA to keep the structure light while meeting demanding engineering requirements, delivering the openness Stanford envisioned.
NYA drew on its pioneering seismic isolation expertise to design a system that supports Stanford’s goal of uninterrupted care. By reducing shaking within the hospital, the system helps protect patients, staff, and medical equipment. NYA’s technical expertise brought that protection into the design, reducing the risk of damage and disruption.
UCSF envisioned a major new hospital on a steep, triangular site surrounded by existing buildings, roads, and underground utilities. The limited footprint left little room for the large, flexible floors essential to modern healthcare.
NYA engineered a way to make every square foot count. Dramatic cantilevers extended usable floors beyond their supporting columns, while an innovative structural system accommodated shifting floorplates as the tower rose. Together, these solutions maximized the space available within the site’s restrictive geometry.
The result was a structural design that made UCSF’s nearly million-square-foot hospital possible on a site that seemed far too small to accommodate it.
UCSF needed to fit an architecturally ambitious hospital onto a severely constrained site while meeting California’s demanding seismic requirements. Conventional seismic systems would have occupied precious space and imposed significant restrictions on the building’s design.
NYA engineered an innovative system combining steel moment frames with nearly 200 fluid viscous dampers. By dissipating earthquake energy without relying on restrictive walls or bracing, the system accommodated the building’s dramatic geometry and preserved its open, flexible spaces.
The result was a hospital designed for powerful earthquakes, with the architectural freedom and usable space UCSF envisioned.
UCSF saw an opportunity to simplify construction through prefabricated MEP racks and bathroom pods. But making these innovations work required multiple engineering disciplines to resolve competing requirements before construction.
NYA brought the MEP teams together to coordinate shared racks and engineered the structural supports needed to accommodate them. This coordination also minimized MEP clashes before construction. NYA also coordinated the building structure to receive prefabricated bathroom pods.
The result was two California hospital firsts, making installation more efficient, reducing rework, and lowering construction costs for UCSF.
Established working relationships reduce the uncertainty that puts hospital projects at risk. NYA combines a cohesive, experienced team with close HCAI collaboration and a commitment to architects and contractors, keeping decisions consistent, approvals advancing, and construction moving.
NYA partners with HCAI early, aligns on priorities, and works through technical questions together, securing approvals for innovative solutions, including AMCs.
1 of only 5 HCAI-approved plan-check firms
NYA’s low staff turnover gives our engineers years of shared experience. The people who understand the design, the decisions behind it, and the project’s history remain engaged, preserving knowledge, strengthening coordination, and keeping teams aligned from design through construction.
20+ years median tenure
NYA builds lasting relationships with architects and contractors by honoring our commitments. We stay accessible, understand what the field needs, and deliver clear, considered answers when they matter most. That reliability keeps questions from becoming delays.
49% of RFIs answered in one day or less
At UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, NYA worked with the project team and the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) to help develop the then-novel approach of phased plan review. Together, we aligned design, permitting, and construction so work could begin before the entire hospital design was complete.
NYA worked with the owner, architect, contractor, and HCAI to develop the then-novel approach of phased plan review, which aligned the entire team around a new approach to hospital delivery.
Close coordination between structural engineers, architects, contractors, and HCAI allowed the team to identify which portions of the design could be completed, reviewed, and permitted independently. This strategic separation secured site preparation and structural permits 12–18 months earlier.
Ongoing coordination between the design and construction teams allowed construction work to advance while architects continued refining more complex portions of the hospital, preserving architectural flexibility.
The team’s shared commitment, coordinated decision-making, and proactive resolution of challenges helped deliver UC Irvine Douglas Hospital on schedule and within budget, demonstrating the lasting value of an integrated approach to hospital delivery.
Select a project to see its role, scale, structural focus, and project story.
NYA brings technical ingenuity, cost insight, and close collaboration to the decisions that put hospital projects at risk. From the first structural concept through construction, we turn that expertise into lower costs, fewer surprises, and greater confidence in delivery.
Creative engineering that protects seismic performance, preserves design ambition, and reduces material demands.
Early analysis that reveals savings and establishes structural cost before major decisions are locked in.
Well-supported solutions developed with HCAI to uphold safety and move approvals forward.
Structural decisions and review packages coordinated with the sequence of construction.
Owners, architects, builders, and MEP teams brought together to resolve challenges early.
Long-serving teams preserve project knowledge and deliver timely answers that keep work moving.
