Construction has topped out at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center's new inpatient tower, the signature element of the hospital's $400-million upgrade.  

The five-story building, located at the center of the hospital campus at 1300 N. Vermont Avenue in East Hollywood, will house an expanded emergency department, a neonatal intensive care unit, and additional private patient rooms.

The project is being designed by KMD Architects and built by general contractor Skanska.

The approximately 175,000-square-foot building will absorb the functions older facilities at the Hollywood Presbyterian complex.  California state law requires that all acute care facilities must be either replaced or retrofitted to meet current seismic safety standards by the year 2030.

CHA Health Systems, which owns and operates the hospital, has financed the project in part through federal loans.

Several other hospitals in the Los Angeles are embarking on similar expansions and retrofit projects to comply with this requirement, including the neighboring Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center and Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

CHA's new patient tower is the third and final phase of a modernization project that began in 2016 with the retrofit of two existing buildings, followed by the construction of a new parking garage.

Completion is expected in 2021.