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Providence St. Vincent Medical Center is getting an $85 million facelift 鈥� inside and out. Construction will start this fall on a new exterior skin for the hospital along with seismic upgrades and expansion of some patient rooms.

Nancy Roberts, chief operating officer for Providence St. Vincent, said the first priority for the medical center was to upgrade the exterior of the 1971 building, but it made sense to do seismic upgrades at the same time to the oldest building on the hospital campus.

鈥淭he main reason (for construction) was to do external repairs, to make it water-tight and for energy efficiency, and to make it last another 50 or 60 years,鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淚t made sense while doing that to do seismic upgrades because in the process they would be covering up some of the columns to be reinforced.鈥�

Those external repairs involve recladding the exterior with a new aluminum and glass skin, said Karl Sonnenberg, a partner at ZGF Architects.

鈥淩ight now it has single-pane glazed windows that lose energy,鈥� he said.

The new exterior curtain wall, or skin, will save energy and help the hospital better control temperatures. Work on the building also will include new electrical and air distribution systems, making it 鈥渢horoughly modern,鈥� Sonnenberg said.

The hospital, at 9205 S.W. Barnes Road, was originally designed for the extra weight of another six stories to be added, Sonnenberg said. There are no plans to add any more stories now, but the original design gives the building extra strength.

鈥淚t’s not likely to collapse now, but (with seismic upgrades) it is designed for the largest earthquake so (staff and patients) can exit the building,鈥� Sonnenberg said.

In the event of a less than catastrophic earthquake, the hospital will be able to either stay in operation or reopen very quickly.

Andersen Construction is the general contractor for the project with structural engineering by KPFF Consulting Engineers. PAE Consulting Engineers will provide mechanical and electrical engineering. Mechanical work will be by Total Mechanical Inc., and Oregon Electric Group will do the electrical work. Culver Glass will supply the exterior glass for work to be done by The Fa莽ade Group on the curtain wall.

At KPFF, managing partner Blake Patsy and project manager Reid Zimmerman said they used a computer model, Construct 3D, to determine exactly what needed to be done for the seismic upgrades.

Zimmerman said the hospital’s seismic upgrades are a voluntary move by the Providence St. Vincent. 聽Because some building materials from the 1970s are no longer used today and seismic design was in its infancy back then, KPFF used ASCE information on seismic upgrades to older buildings.

鈥淲e had a lot of different options, but what we’re doing is using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), sort of like Plexiglas on a boat,鈥� Zimmerman said. 鈥淲e take sheets of fiber matrix embedded in epoxy to wrap around the existing columns and beams.鈥�

During an earthquake, he said, the FRP 鈥渒eeps the concrete together鈥� and provides more strength and ductility.

鈥淲hen something is very ductile, you can pull it out a long time and it never breaks,鈥� Zimmerman said.

The fiber matrix is applied much like wallpaper, according to Patsy.

鈥淲e layer it on the concrete, put epoxy on and smooth it out,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t might take two or three layers.鈥�

The layers of FRP are 鈥渧ery strong stuff,鈥� Zimmerman said, and each layer is only 0.05 inches thick.

The final part of construction will be expansion of patient rooms on the sixth through ninth floors, made possible by the extra room provided by the new exterior skin, Roberts said. Patient rooms on the lower levels were previously remodeled. The building also has three below-grade levels for the emergency department, parking and storage.

Roberts said daily operations of the hospital will not be disrupted during construction because interior work will be done one section at a time.

鈥淲e do not anticipate any reduction of service and patients will be moved to either another part of the main tower or to other buildings on the campus,鈥� she said.

The work will take about two years.

鈥淭he first evidence of construction will be the arrival of a construction crane in late September or early October,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut the work will not be complete until the first quarter of 2019.鈥�