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After years’ worth of delays, a massive federal project to upgrade the seismically vulnerable Portland VA Medical Center on Marquam Hill is moving forward.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers‘ Portland District in August selected a joint venture of ZGF Architects and Leo A. Daly, an Omaha, Nebraska-based design, engineering and planning firm, to provide architectural and engineering services for improvements to the Veterans Affairs‘ facility. The design contract, carrying a maximum value of $130 million, has a base period of five years with an optional five-year extension.

The scope of work is to include the seismic upgrades of three structures considered at extremely high risk of failure in a seismic event: Building 100, the 638,843-square-foot main hospital building with nine stories above grade and two below; Building 101, a 130,852-square-foot research and administrative building; and Building 102, a below-grade parking garage that supports the roadway in front of buildings 100 and 101.

A sky-bridge connecting two buildings will also undergo structural reinforcement, and a second sky-bridge will be constructed to connect with a new Specialty Care Building that will provide swing space during the renovations of buildings 100 and 101. A new parking garage is also planned, as are demolitions of several smaller buildings and either a new or upgraded energy plant.

In addition to seismic upgrades, nearly 750,000 square feet of space in buildings 100 and 101 will be renovated, and failing facades will be repaired or replaced. The main hospital building, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and ZGF, was completed in 1987.

The planned upgrades date back to at least 2012, when the VA issued notice for firms interested in performing design work on the massive project. By 2015, the VA said the then-unfunded project was in 鈥渇ull swing,鈥� but no architect was under contract. In 2017, the project wasn’t advancing because of a lack of funding, and a VA project manager estimated that the original $650 million cost estimate could potentially reach $1 billion.

Two years later, as commercial construction costs continue to rise, USACE officials are declining to provide an estimated project cost. That figure, according to Lauren Bennett, a public affairs specialist with the USACE Portland District, will be available within the next few months, pending review of a $6.5 million 鈥減roject book鈥� pre-design study conducted by Schwab Engineering of Glendale, California.

The study was commissioned by the VA last year and delivered late last month. It was reviewed by the USACE Portland District before being sent to the VA’s Office of Construction & Facilities Management for review and approval.

A solicitation for a contract for technical services issued this past May lists an estimated construction cost of $650 million.

For now, an initial $3.5 million task order to the ZGF/Leo A. Daly Joint Venture is funding preliminary work through April 2020, including creation of design concepts and a charette in which the project team will review and select a plan to be reviewed by the VA.

The technical services contract, which would include quality assurance review of design documentation, construction bid documents, value engineering/management services and technical review and scoping of other contractors’ services, is due to be awarded in the first quarter of next year. That contract carries a maximum value of $25 million.

According to a November 2018 solicitation for architecture and engineering services, the design is anticipated to be 35 percent complete by next spring, and fully complete by early 2021. A congressional budget request will be made in mid-2020, with construction to begin in 2022 and conclude in 2029.