OHSU Hospital Expansion Returns in Front of Design Commission (images)

The planned expansion of the OHSU Hospital has returned in front of the Design Commission for a second Design Advice Request (DAR) meeting. The 14-story, 525,300 sq ft building is being designed by NBBJ architects with Mayer/Reed landscape architects.

The OHSU Hospital Expansion will be built on a site sandwiched between lower Campus Drive and upper Campus Drive, which was formerly home to the 1956 School of Dentistry. Demolition of the existing building was completed in 2018. The OHSU Elks Children’s Eye Clinic is under construction immediately to the east of the hospital expansion.

The future Marquam Hill Connector will connect OHSU to a MAX stop on Barbur Blvd. The upper landing for the connector has yet to be determined, however it could land near the intersection of SW Campus Drive and Terwilliger Blvd, which would create a significant increase to pedestrian traffic along lower Campus Drive.

The lowest level of the building will be at lower Campus Drive, where there will be a covered entry porte-cochere for drop-offs and pick-ups. The ground floor of the building will include a public lobby, bicycle storage and building support functions. Above the ground floor will be three floors of structured parking, accessed from upper Campus Drive.

Levels 3 through 8 of the building (consistent with the OHSU campus floor numbering scheme) will include clinical services, including triage, antepartum, adult care beds, mother-baby units and a neonatal intensive care unit. One of the goals of the project is to establish a comprehensive fetal surgery program, something currently lacking in the Pacific Northwest. With the new building OHSU would become one of only a handful of hospitals in the nation that offers comprehensive care for mother, baby and neonate in one location.

Levels 9 and 10 would be shelled space for future expansion. Level 2 and a rooftop penthouse would serve mechanical and electrical needs.

Above the parking and mechanical levels the building is arranged in a U-shaped massing, open to the east. The massing is designed to preserve views to the south from the Kohler Pavilion, while enhancing the view of Marquam Hill from the east. The massing chosen also minimizes construction impacts by preserving a utiliy corridor and the the existing retaining wall holding up upper Campus Drive.

Skybridges over upper Campus Drive will connect the hospital expansion to the existing OHSU Hospital building and to the Kohler Pavilion.

The second DAR for the OHSU Hospital Expansion was held on June 27th, 2019, following an initial meeting held on May 5th, 2019. Changes made in response to feedback, and summarized in a staff memo to the Design Commission, included a simplification of the facade design; an erosion of the massing at the building’s base, to provide for greater light, landscaping and visibility into the building’s main entry; and the introduction of an “extruded louver blade with a wood grain veneer finish” at the parking levels.

The project is currently scheduled to have its first Type III Design Review hearing on October 17th.