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Although staff recommended approval for Oregon Health & Science University‘s latest development on its South Waterfront campus, the Portland Design Commission set another hearing date.

Design review for the new Center for Health & Healing South, will take place Feb. 18 beginning at 12:30 p.m. 鈥� an hour earlier than usual. The hearing will be the project’s fifth appearance before the commission.

CHH South, designed by ZGF Architects, will occupy Block 29 and include a 15-story hospital with more than 370,000 square feet of ambulatory surgery and clinic space. It will connect to the existing CHH North via a two-level sky bridge over Southwest Whitaker Avenue. Plus, on the adjacent Block 28, plans call for an 11-story building with six floors of housing over four stories of parking.

Design commissioners agreed that the design of the hospital portion was acceptable, but Commission Chairman David Wark said the two projects couldn’t be approved separately.

鈥淭hey need to be cohesive and relate to each other,鈥� he said.

Much of the commissioners’ discussion focused on the exterior of the parking garage, which the residential tower overlooks.

鈥淚t is a big building, but it seems so much heavier than it needs to be,鈥� Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

Architect David Staczek of ZGF said determining the right exterior for the parking garage was the design team’s biggest challenge. He suggested creating artwork 鈥� perhaps a grid of perforated metal panels that would emulate flocks of birds. He said that would be appropriate because Portland is on the Pacific Flyway (bird migratory path), and that several artists were being considered.

At the end of the meeting, Wark said that the team needed to address the composition of the garage exterior as well as the heaviness of the housing and the need for more glazing.