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Veterans Affairs officials are in the process of selecting an architect and an engineer for a project costing more than $100 million to renovate and seismically retrofit the Portland VA Medical Center.

Portland VA spokesman Dan Herrigstad said planning for the project is still in the early stages; he declined to give the names of firms vying to design it. A construction start date isn’t set yet, he added.

The plan calls for seismically retrofitting the 680,392-square-foot main hospital building and an adjacent 129,692-square-foot building that houses patient advocates and other services, according to the VA’s pre-solicitation notice for an architect and an engineer.

Also, the Butler Building – an aging 25,359-square-foot structure that includes staff offices, training areas and temporary veteran housing – will be demolished and a 256,000-square-foot medical building will be constructed in its place, the notice said. In addition, a parking garage with about 600 above-ground spaces will be built to address a shortage of hospital employee parking.

The main hospital and adjacent patient advocate building were both designed and built in the 1980s, and a retrofit would bring them up to current city code, Herrigstad said. Planned renovations include repairs of the buildings’ deteriorating tile facade.

In the pre-solicitation notice, the VA said the project would be required to achieve at minimum a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design silver rating. The notice also said VA officials would consider hiring only architecture and engineering firms with an established working office within a 200-mile radius of the Portland VA Medical Center.