By the Numbers: All About Oakland’s New Kamin Tower

UPMC PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL, PRIOR TO THE MODERNIZATION PROJECT | PHOTO: FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

It won’t be long until a new tower joins Oakland’s distinctive skyline.

UPMC Presbyterian Kamin Tower broke ground in 2022, adjacent to the nearly-100-year-old Presbyterian hospital. Officials say the medical giant received a “philanthropic gift” from Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin and the Kamin Family Foundation in 2025, which has advanced the project further; now, ribbon-cutting for the new building is expected to take place on Jan. 20, 2027 with patients slated to move in on Jan. 24, 2027

But what makes the Kamin Tower different from the dozens of other medical buildings in Oakland, a neighborhood long hailed as Pittsburgh’s “eds and meds” corridor for the amount of innovative hospitals and universities nearby?

Officials say it boils down to modern amenities, patient-centered design and community impact.

On the Outside

The roughly $1.3 billion project includes a 900,000 sq. ft. and 17-story inpatient tower with 636 private rooms. It includes 450 parking spaces in a “visually appealing” underground parking garage and the latest digital, high-tech hospital enhancements. 

It’s all part of the new, renovated UPMC Presbyterian campus, which boasts a total footprint of 1.2 million sq. ft. and is made up of 9,200 tons of steel, 290,000 square feet of glass, 120,000 yards of excavated soil and 23,000 yards of concrete. 

The campus’ green design will also feature 56 trees across a “lush, accessible landscape.”

“It has several outdoor spaces that were intentionally built into the design of UPMC Presbyterian Kamin Tower, especially in an urban environment like Oakland,” says Gloria Kreps, media relations manager for UPMC. 

She adds that one of the outdoor spaces, called the Piazza, is planted with Pennsylvania native plants to “nurture biodiversity and help pollinators.” 

“The green spaces will offer respite for our patients, families and employees,” she says.

The design of the building itself is equally intentional; the materials for the building’s façade — energy-efficient, patterned glass — will reflect and blend into the design of existing UPMC Presbyterian’s campus and the surrounding Oakland neighborhood, officials say. The new tower will also connect through the existing facility to “ensure convenient patient, staff and visitor flow through the hospital.”

Its design features a three-level base of limestone and glass intended to provide “visible, material links” to Oakland’s legacy of “rich, historic masonry.” The significant amount of glass will also offset the presence of the tower’s 17 stories, “making it feel part of the community.”

An Interior View

As the old adage goes, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. 

The tower’s interior will consist of all private rooms and flexible spaces with natural light through the glass exterior. Nearly one-fourth of the patient rooms in the tower will be intensive care unit (ICU) rooms or innovative acuity-adaptable rooms. This, officials say, allows for continuity throughout complex, critical care delivery by UPMC’s expert physicians and care teams — all with a strong focus on patient experience.

The new floor plan and flow of the tower will “enhance the patient stay,” according to the project website, connecting patients and families with the shared resources and expertise of UPMC. A “universal patient unit” will support all levels of care and provide the necessary services to support patients throughout their stay, from arrival to ICU; to units offering less intense levels of care as the patient recovers; and to discharge, all within the same floor treating those with similar conditions. The clinical inpatient organizational approach will focus on condition management by floor. In other words, patients will transition through care all on the same floor, without having to move rooms multiple times as they progress toward recovery.

“This is intended to improve outcomes through maintaining the continuity of care, and the staff and physicians that see them from start to finish,” the website reads. “This shift in the care model can reduce their length of stay and improve outcomes, which ultimately can reduce health care costs.”

With a dozen operating rooms, the tower will host physicians and care teams specializing in a range of specialties, including transplant, heart and vascular and neurological care.

Community Partnerships and Impact

Kreps adds that the tower also includes the largest new collection of public art in Oakland in decades. 

“Artwork has been an integral component since the tower’s initial designs and will feature commissioned pieces from 25 local and national artists on the tower’s exterior, in shared public spaces and on inpatient floors to create unexpected moments of reprieve,” she says. 

Similarly, another feature, called The Grove, aims to redefine what a hospital can be and who a hospital must be for.

With a full-service restaurant called Root and Vine operated by local restaurateur Andrea Robinson, the Grove will be accessible to the public and “serve as a connection point with the community,” Kreps says. It will also include a gift shop, a Starbucks and an artisan kiosk — a space for pop-up shops from local vendors and a gallery of local artists to display and sell their pieces.

Architects and other officials have also been in communication with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, both mainstays of the Oakland “eds and meds” corridor. The new tower was designed with these partnerships in mind; design concepts will facilitate an environment and space for learning and education within the health care setting, officials say, and lifestyle spaces throughout the tower will “blend seamlessly into the university setting.”

Likewise, the design team has partnered with CMU’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics to model light conditions and design methods to manage light and heat entering the building, promote natural daylights and lessen bird strikes.

You can read more about the project, and receive updates about its progress, online.