Bringing Innovative Animal Care and Research Spaces to Life

As a world-class veterinary and research institution, UC Davis has many spaces that serve not only humans, but also horses and raptors and cats (oh my). Long before a beloved furry friend can get a state-of-the-art CT scan or a peregrine falcon can fly through an obstacle course to inform flight research, Design and Construction Management, or DCM, project managers work diligently and collaboratively to ensure each project is able to accommodate every creature that uses it. 

Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation 

One of the most innovative and exciting projects DCM recently helped bring to fruition is the Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation, or CALI. This facility is equipped with cutting-edge cameras and technology able to capture and reconstruct detailed images of animals in motion, making it the first of its kind in the country. 

To bring this ambitious research center to life, DCM’s Brent Gesell, project manager, and Scott Reitz, assistant director of design, partnered closely with the co-principal investigators for the lab: Christina Harvey, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; and Michelle Hawkins — veterinarian, professor at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, and director of the California Raptor Center. 

DCM’s partnership on CALI started before the project was even funded. Gesell and Reitz worked with Harvey and Hawkins to create a draft design for a grant application to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Office. The proposal was accepted and ultimately funded the project. Once the project started in earnest, the teamwork continued. 

“It was really this team collaboration between us and DCM,” Harvey said. “They were very understanding with our budget and with what the birds and the cameras needed.”

 One consideration with the high-frame-rate cameras was the need for particular lighting to ensure there was no flickering in the footage they captured. Harvey, Gesell and Reitz went back and forth with vendors, researching and testing different products to secure the perfect studio lighting for the center. 

Gesell also worked closely with Hawkins to ensure both the main hall and the bird enclosures were safe for the raptors who would use them. CALI was originally conceived as a center to specifically facilitate the study of flight in raptors before being expanded in scope to facilitate the study of animal movement more broadly. As such, a lot of effort went into bird-proofing the center. 

“I met with Michelle Hawkins and other representatives from Vet Med to understand parameters for the design that would provide safety for bringing birds into the center, housing and their safety during research,” Gesell said. 

In the main hall, safety measures included removing or covering any sharp edges; painting all surfaces white; and creating a custom cover for the chains to the roll-up doors of the hall so the birds wouldn’t be attracted to the shiny metal. 

Now that CALI is operational, Harvey has already begun collecting data on healthy bird flight that can not only inform flight research and innovations but also could serve as a useful reference against which to evaluate rehabilitated birds. A major function of the California Raptor Center is rehabilitating and releasing injured raptors. 

“Deciding when to release a bird is a subjective process. There are objective things that inform the decision. I can tell when a bone heals and measure the angle of the wing. The choice of when to release is subjective, though” Hawkins said. “I don’t want to release them too early and not have them thrive. Those are the worries I have all the time.” 

CALI offers an opportunity to create new evaluation criteria for rehabilitated birds by modeling healthy flight in the same type of birds. 

“A lightbulb went off — maybe this is the objective way I can tell if birds are ready,” Hawkins said. “It’s so incredibly exciting.” 

Small Animal Hospital 

Another exciting project set to improve the quality of animal care at UC Davis is the Veterinary Medical Center’s new small animal hospital. This cutting-edge veterinary teaching hospital is partially funded by two historic gifts to the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine — positioned to transform veterinary care, education and research advancing both animal and human health. Read more about the record-breaking $120 million gift from philanthropists Joan and Sanford I. Weill and the $75 million gift from Kathy Chiao and Kenneth (Ken) Hao that will name the school’s new small animal hospital.

The animal hospital is in the preliminary design stages. During this early phase, Christine Vargas, DCM senior project manager, is hosting development workshops with all the departments and services that will be housed in the hospital. 

“My goal is to determine what a day in the life of each service looks like,” Vargas said. 

Through these meetings, Vargas is learning the needs of each space, including elements like room size, paths of travel and necessary equipment. Understanding these needs allows for the design of spaces that are not only functional, but efficient, pleasant and safe for every person and animal who passes through them. 

“The small animal hospital will house dozens of services,” explained Robert Collins, facilities project manager for the UC Davis Weiss School of Veterinary Medicine and key collaborator in the small animal hospital project. “What we’re deciding now is how the hospital will flow through all these services. We’re looking for beneficial service adjacencies — like, ‘do we want orthopedics near sports medicine so animals that have joint surgeries could rehab next door?’” 

Synergistic flow is just one of many factors considered when designing these projects. 

All Species Imaging Center 

In the case of the All Species Imaging Center, another veterinary-care centered project Vargas managed, accommodating animal movements was particularly complicated. As the name suggests, the All Species Imaging Center serves a myriad of animals, from pet birds to longhorn steers. 

“I’m not used to thinking about how a horse would move through a building,” Vargas said. “We had to consider ‘is this door wide enough?’ and ‘is the floor durable enough?’” 

In order to safely accommodate the largest animals moving through the facility, doors and hallways have to be very wide and there needs to be room to maneuver a forklift to transport some large animals. 

One such large animal to utilize this space was Joe Juice, a 19-year-old horse that was scanned using the new state-of-the-art equipment before the All Species Imaging Center even opened. Thanks to the new imaging capabilities, Joe Juice’s sialolith — a mass in his cheek — was able to be assessed without full sedation. Joe Juice underwent surgery and recovered quickly. 

Joe Juice is just one of many animals that will benefit from the advanced diagnostic imaging at the All Species Imaging Center. 

Cat Lounge and Dog Lobby 

While a brand-new specialty center is undeniably exciting, just changing the furniture in an existing space can also go a long way. Brianna Kitcher, DCM project manager in Interior and Furniture services, did just that, revitalizing the waiting areas at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. 

“Being at the hospital is already a stressful experience — for the animals and their owners — so I wanted to make a space that can make them feel comfortable and relaxed,” Kitcher said. 

The project started with a request to create a separate waiting area for cats but grew to encompass all the waiting areas at the hospital. To create calming environments, Kitcher researched color theory for animals and identified blue as a color that both cats and dogs find peaceful. Kitcher also focused on injecting the spaces with a bit of fun. 

“I wanted to make it a little more playful, to bring some levity,” Kitcher said. Kitcher captured this playfulness in cat and dog wall graphics and new “Cat Lounge” and “Dog Lobby” signs. 

Kitcher also used high-backed furniture to block line of sight between the cats and dogs and found super durable fabric that set a new standard for furniture for veterinary settings at the university. 

Goat Pens 

On the other side of campus, a very different animal-related project (one with no furniture at all) was completed in 2025. Due to an engineering project in south campus, goat pens for the Goat Teaching and Research Facility needed to be removed. This provided an opportunity to construct new pens closer to the goat dairy and provide upgraded provisions for shading, access to water and drainage. 

“They told us their programming needs and we came up with a plan to redo a portion of the pens,” Caroline O’Neal, DCM project manager for the project, said. 

O’Neal worked “hand-in-hand” with representatives from Animal Science to understand the needs of the goats and the humans that will be using the space. 

“Goats can jump,” O’Neal said. “Their hooves and necks could get stuck in places. We had to consider all of this to make sure the enclosure was safe.” 

In addition to safety, another priority for the design was accommodating future expansions. 

“We wanted to make sure Animal Science would be able to build more of the pens when they had funding,” O’Neal said. 

These considerations for the future largely revolved around managing goat waste. In order to keep the solid animal waste from making its way into ground water and, eventually, the university’s wastewater treatment plant, O’Neal collaborated with Facilities to install a clarifier to filter out solids. The clarifier was installed in an area and with a capacity so that it could also be utilized for future goat pens. 

Conclusion 

UC Davis is uniquely positioned to foster an exciting variety of innovative animal care and research facilities. Through constant collaboration and an unwavering commitment to delivering the best product and client experience, DCM plays a crucial role in realizing these spaces that ultimately facilitate life-saving procedures and breakthroughs. 

“My experience working with DCM was great,” Harvey said of the collaboration on CALI. “They really cared and really tried. They lined everything up to be on time and on budget and were always lovely to work with.”