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Though Oregon Health & Science University first settled at Marquam Hill nearly 100 years ago to escape the rapid development of Portland, the university is now fully invested in pushing back in.

OHSU is the city’s largest employer, and today controls one 116-acre main campus on Marquam Hill, an 8-acre South Waterfront campus, and a 20-acre parcel (donated by the Schnitzer family) to the north. Following the opening of the Collaborative Life Sciences Building at the new 鈥淪chnitzer campus鈥� last year, OHSU has three more buildings in the design process.

In a month, shovels should hit the ground on the $349 million, two-building Center for Health & Healing South. And next year, public hearings will focus on the $160 million Knight Cancer Research Building 鈥� an ambitious 320,000-square-foot research facility slated for construction slightly north of the new Skourtes Tower on Southwest Moody Avenue.

The route the research university has taken to expand would likely have surprised its founders, according to Brian Newman, OHSU’s head of campus planning, development and real estate. He spoke this week at the Construction Specifications Institute‘s monthly meeting.

鈥淥f course, reality gets in your way 鈥� It shows you how challenging it is to implement original plans,鈥� he said, citing Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, which straddles a canyon on the hill.

Newman talked about OHSU’s plans for continued growth into the South Waterfront District 鈥� an area that has long vexed planners. Bounded by Interstate 5, it’s somewhat cut off from the rest of the city, despite geographic closeness. As the longtime home of shipbuilding and scrapping activities, much of the soil there contains toxins, so additional layers of governmental review are required. Plus, many outdated buildings around the campus are considered historic, which further limits what designers can do.

鈥淭earing down anything is a great challenge,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淢any buildings are sitting empty right now.鈥�

OHSU today employs about 12,600 people, and has approximately 2,500 students enrolled in its medical, dental, nursing and engineering science programs as well as 1,000 enrolled in training programs. Though envisioned as an 鈥渁cropolis on a hill鈥� when it opened in 1919, OHSU was only a few decades old when it started running out of room. Because of engineering challenges from the geography on and around Marquam Hill 鈥� construction of one building required pumping concrete uphill several hundred feet 鈥� OHSU’s master plan targets the South Waterfront for expansion.

Along with enormous private donations from some of Oregon’s wealthiest families and individuals, more than $600 million in public money has gone into development of infrastructure in the district. Improvements include the new MAX orange line, expanded streetcar service, extensions of Bond and Moody avenues, the Darlene Hooley pedestrian crossing, and the controversial aerial tram that runs from Marquam Hill to the South Waterfront campus.

The Center for Health & Healing reflects a trend in health care toward more short-term care, Newman said. The new South complex will feature two buildings on adjacent blocks, with a tunnel linking them below Southwest Bond Avenue. Five floors of the Block 28 building will serve as an ambulatory hospital facility, dedicated to invasive surgeries and outpatient care. Above it, the Knight Cancer Research Building will have lab space. Plans for the other building, Block 29, call for conference facilities, above-ground parking and five floors of subsidized temporary housing for OHSU’s many out-of-town patients.

Hoffman Construction, the general contractor for the Center for Health & Healing South, has been under contract for about a year. Project managers have spent many hours in joint meetings with ZGF Architects and a varied group of stakeholders and consultants. ZGF even hired nurses to advise the project team and convinced doctors to attend team meetings.

More goes into preconstruction than people might think, Hoffman Vice President Bart Eberwein said.

鈥淥HSU I would put in the category of 鈥榚nlightened owner,’ 鈥� he said. 鈥淪o they hire the designer and the contractor concurrently, and we jointly design what the project looks like 鈥� everybody in the room is talking about what would make a better medical office building. The feeling is that the more voices that are there, the better the outcome.鈥�

The Knight Cancer Research Building, named for donors Phil and Penny Knight, would house under one roof all operations of the Knight Cancer Institute, which currently occupies four buildings on Marquam Hill. The building is planned as a seven-story research facility, with a commons to the east. Another building is planned for the other half of the block, likely five to 10 years after construction of the Knight Cancer Research Building. Type III design review plans were submitted to the Portland Design Commission this month, with public hearings expected to take place next year.