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Two SRG Partnership projects designed for university clients will need a few tweaks to gain city approval.

The Portland Design Commission last week offered feedback on a planned renovation and expansion of Portland State University鈥檚 School of Business Administration building in downtown Portland. The group also critiqued preliminary plans for the proposed Knight Cancer Research Building on the Oregon Health & Science University Schnitzer Campus in the South Waterfront District.

Portland-based SRG Partnership design teams are contributing to both projects. For the PSU business school building, the firm is partnering with Stuttgart, Germany-based Behnisch Architekten.

The proposed $46 million project calls for renovating the existing 100,000-square-foot building, at 631 S.W. Harrison St., and constructing a 31,600-square-foot addition with a new entrance facing Southwest Sixth Avenue. A modernization and upgrade to the existing structure would add 400 classroom seats and 22 break-out rooms for students. The addition would be the same height as the existing building and occupy half of the remaining project site, leaving room to create a public plaza on the northeast corner.

A glass-lined atrium space with a sloped roof would connect the existing building with the addition. The design of the building addition, a series of terraced wood trays with eco-roofs, and the new plaza space embrace the city designation of Southwest Montgomery Street as a green street, said Matthew Noblett, a partner with Behnisch Architekten鈥檚 Boston office. The ample stormwater planters on the street served as an inspiration, he told the design commission on Thursday at a design review hearing for the project.

鈥淭he Montgomery green street goes through the site and begins to influence the building ground floor,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e think of this as different from your typical urban stock in the city. The building itself is more like a garden structure. It鈥檚 fairly light in volume 鈥� It begins to express this idea of green trays.鈥�

But city planner Jeffrey Mitchem on Thursday told the commission that Bureau of Development Services staffers believe the project design, as proposed, isn鈥檛 approvable. Among concerns of city staffers were the small size of ground-floor windows and lack of awnings on the building鈥檚 side that would face Southwest Harrison Street, he said.

Design commissioners said they agreed with these concerns. Several also questioned plans to construct a new connection between the renovated and expanded building with an existing campus sky bridge.

Commission Vice Chairman Ben Kaiser said that despite written testimony the commission received regarding the sky bridge鈥檚 use by people in wheelchairs to more easily navigate the campus, university officials should plan to eventually tear it down and instead make ground-floor entrances more accessible universally.

鈥淎t some point, in my opinion, (the sky bridge) should come down,鈥� he told the design team. 鈥淚 love your design. It clashes so much with that bridge.鈥�

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he also wasn鈥檛 a fan of plans to use corrugated metal panels to reclad the existing business school building.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e really going to have to work hard to get me on (board with) that one,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e doing it justice with the metal.鈥�

The project team is scheduled to return before the commission with design revisions on July 23.

Knight Cancer Research Building

The design commission also offered feedback Thursday on initial OHSU plans to construct a new building dedicated to cancer research.

Early plans for the Knight Cancer Research Building call for an eight-story, 332,000-square-foot structure fronting Southwest Moody Avenue, directly north of the Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Skourtes Tower. The proposed building would be almost exclusively used by the university鈥檚 cancer researchers and include two levels of below-grade parking, a conference center, research labs, offices and ground-floor retail space. An existing pedestrian promenade east of the Skourtes Tower would be extended northward along the new research building鈥檚 east side.

The $160 million project was fast-tracked by a $500 million donation from Nike鈥檚 Phil Knight to support OHSU cancer research, particularly in the realm of early detection, said Brian Newman, associate vice president of campus planning, development and real estate for OHSU.

鈥淭his building is really where the Knight cancer research initiative will be happening,鈥� he said.

Knight鈥檚 donation also allowed the university to move forward with a concurrent project to expand the nearby Center for Health & Healing, Newman said.

As design of the Knight Cancer Research Building moves forward, the project team is exploring the best ways for the structure to foster collaborative research, SRG Partnership principal Jeff Yrazabal told the commission. This includes taking lessons learned from the CLSB, a combined education and research building, he said.

鈥淥ur team is truly inspired by the mission of the Knight Cancer Institute,鈥� Yrazabal said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been challenged to create a new model for their research environment. We鈥檙e searching for innovative ideas everywhere 鈥� Team science is really driving all these ideas for how this building takes shape. How do we encourage interaction?鈥�

This is one reason why the design team opted for a shorter building with wider floor plates.

鈥淲e鈥檙e effectively trying to create a stair building, not an elevator building,鈥� he said.

Design commissioners said that overall they were pleased with the direction of the project design, but offered a few suggestions. Kaiser noted that it might be better to replace a proposed rooftop terrace with smaller ones on every floor.

鈥淲ouldn鈥檛 it be great for researchers to have a terrace on every level?鈥� he said.

Commissioner Guenevere Millius was reminded the design team that the commission will pay close attention to how the building responds to its context.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be interested to see how this building interacts on all sides with the city,鈥� she said.

A return by the project team before the commission is not scheduled yet.