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A proposed expansion to Oregon Health & Science University‘s Center for Health & Healing in the South Waterfront could face an uphill battle to gain city approval because of plans to build sky bridges.

The Portland Design Commission last week during a design advice hearing for the project criticized the proposed sky bridges and an above-grade parking garage included in the research hospital’s plans for two new buildings directly south of the existing Center for Health & Healing, at 3303 S.W. Bond St. Commissioners told the ZGF Architects design team the sky bridges and parking structure would negatively impact the pedestrian experience.

鈥淚 don’t for a second doubt the need for parking,鈥� Commissioner Tad Savinar said. 鈥淪ky bridges and five floors of parking structure are intensive in terms of their impact on the urban environment. My guess is you’ll have to make your case that this is a betterment, how it makes your experience on the street better.鈥�

Project plans call for a 12-story, 360,000-square-foot outpatient clinic, the Center for Health & Healing South, constructed on top of existing underground parking on full block bounded by Southwest Whitaker and Curry streets and Moody and Bond avenues.

Clinic parking and patient housing would be located in an adjacent 10-story, 264,000-square-foot, mixed-use building that would be constructed on an existing surface parking lot bounded by Whitaker and Curry Streets and Bond Avenue and River Parkway. The proposed mixed-use building would have retail space and a conference center on the ground floor, one level of below-grade parking, above-grade parking on the second through fifth floors, and five floors of housing for patients who traveled to the clinic from outside the Portland-metro area.

Initial project designs calls for two sky bridges. A two-story sky bridge would pass over Whitaker Street to connect the third and fourth floors of the proposed clinic to the existing Center for Health & Healing. The second single-story sky bridge would go over Bond Avenue to connect the fourth floors of the two new buildings.

City staffers told the Design Commission that proposals to build sky bridges in Portland are rare and require special Portland City Council approval. The structures are generally frowned upon in the city’s design guidelines, city planner Kara Fioravanti told the commission.

Kurt Krueger with the Portland Bureau of Transportation said he generally talks developers out of building sky bridges, but city policies regarding the structures have not been updated in years. The last city report that discourages the development of sky bridges was published in 1982, he said.

鈥淲e have not touched a sky structure in probably 12 or 13 years,鈥� Krueger said. 鈥淲e’re dealing with a sky bridge in the South Waterfront, and in 1982 the South Waterfront didn’t exist in the way it does today.鈥�

Brian Newman, OHSU associate vice president of campus planning, development and real estate, told the Design Commission the sky bridge over Moody Avenue would provide swift passage for cancer patients between treatment areas and housing. The proposed sky bridge over Whitaker Street would be primarily used to transport patients between operating rooms and labs and imaging facilities that would spread out between the existing Center for Health & Healing and the proposed southern addition, he said.

鈥淭he challenge as we grow our services is to be as efficient as possible,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淲hen patients leave the operating room they are extremely vulnerable. As I read the (city) encroachment policy, it’s about keeping what should be on the street on the street. We’re not putting anything on those sky bridges that would normally be on the street.鈥�

An alternative would be to transport patients underneath the building, but that would require them to pass through the existing below-grade parking garage. This would be a longer trip and not ideal for those with compromised immune systems, he said.

ZGF principal David Staczek said the design team planned to make the sky bridges feel unobtrusive to the street below by using lots of glass.

鈥淥ur goals are to be light, bright and transparent,鈥� he said.

The proposed above-ground parking garage would be treated similarly and screening aimed to make it appear more attractive to passerby, Staczek said.

鈥淲e’re looking at an elegant solution of screening materials,鈥� he said.

One reason why OHSU officials decided to pursue an above-grade parking structure was because the Center for Health & Healing’s existing below-grade parking structure is prone to flooding with ground water, Newman said. Water is regularly pumped out the three levels of underground parking even in the summer months, he said.

鈥淚t has been a challenge operationally, much greater than we anticipated,鈥� Newman said.

Commission Chairman David Wark suggested that wrapping housing around the parking structure would enliven the street more than screens. He also didn’t like the idea of locating the vehicle drop-off for the proposed outpatient clinic on Southwest Curry Street across from the Caruthers Park.

鈥淲hen I looked at this proposal, I was a bit stunned,鈥� Wark said. 鈥淭he drop off across from the public park, the 75 feet of parking garage and the sky bridges, to me, there are ways to diminish all of those.鈥�

Commissioner Guenevere Millius said a series of sky bridges like OHSU has on its Marquam Hill campus wouldn’t be appropriate in the South Waterfront. The Center for Health & Healing South should take more cues from OHSU’s nearby Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Skourtes Tower, she said.

鈥淚 understand the need for a sky bridge for the medically fragile, but everybody else they can go on the street,鈥� Millus said. 鈥淚’m hoping that the balance of what happens from an urban design perspective that it’s more like what’s going on at the Skourtes (Tower) versus the hill.鈥�

Commission Co-Chairman Ben Kaiser was among other commissioners who encouraged the design team to ensure the two new buildings looked distinct from the existing Center for Health & Healing.

鈥淚t would be unfortunate if this campus grew to have all the buildings look the same,鈥� he said.