San Diego County Medical Examiner and Forensic Center

Project Management Advisors, Inc. (PMA) was retained in spring 2007 by the County of San Diego as their owner’s representative to oversee the design and construction of this 84,000 square foot County of San Diego Medical Examiner and Forensic Center.  This redevelopment houses autopsy, necropsy and BSL-3 level necropsy suites, 1,500 square feet of specialized research space, forensic laboratories and administrative office space.  The services PMA provided include contract administration, budget and schedule oversight, and QA/QC. 

This state-of-the-art facility was designed to allow for growth over the next 30 years and has replaced an existing 16,000 square foot building that was built in 1962.  This facility will serve both the Medical Examiner and the County Veterinary Diagnostic functions and promote shared research and communications in forensic sciences.  The design provides space for an educational relationship with the University of California at San Diego providing education and training to medical students and pathology residents, and includes facilities for tissue harvesting and organ donor operations.  This project included utility infrastructure and site improvements to promote low water-use landscape features and parking for 110 department and public vehicles.  

The Medical Examiner and Forensic Center is the first phase of 635,000 total square feet of construction including four, four-story office buildings, a conference center/cafeteria, and a seven-level parking structure.  A future phase includes two additional office buildings (300,000 SF) and a parking structure with the additional requirement of achieving LEED certification.  The Medical Examiner project team exceeded their charter and this building has been submitted for LEED Certification - Silver Target.