Another Oregon Health & Science University expansion is in the pipeline.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services on Tuesday will host a pre-application conference with ZGF Architects. Kristina Thomsen, a ZGF principal, is the applicant.

Plans call for an approximately 176,000-square-foot addition to the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, at 700 S.W. Campus Drive. It would include a neonatal intensive care unit, labor and delivery rooms, postpartum rooms, and antepartum rooms.

When , the expansion was touted as including up to 22 beds for Women’s and Children’s Services and make available 68 others for use across the hospital.

A type III design review is expected for the project.

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A Dallas-based developer’s plans for a five-building redevelopment of property in the South Waterfront District have a long way to go to gain approval, the Portland Design Commission indicated on Thursday.

The development would sit on four blocks near the Willamette River. Portland Bureau of Development Services staffers raised questions regarding access to the Willamette River, traffic impacts and the layout of a greenway through the area.

The project’s first review hearing before the Design Commission was Thursday. Commissioners were nonplussed by Alamo Manhattan‘s proposal, saying they were unsure how to even begin evaluating what one commissioner described as an incomplete land-use application for a massive redevelopment.

Alamo Manhattan proposes to build approximately 1,232 residential units, 20,000 square feet of retail space and 965 parking spots. The design would locate two high-rise buildings closest to the river, with three mid-rise buildings on the two western blocks, in contrast with city guidelines that call for building heights to step down to the river. The buildings closest to the river would rise to 244 feet, 9 inches, just below the 250-foot maximum height. The interior block buildings would be approximately 72 to 73 feet tall.

“This is very unusual that we’re reviewing five massive buildings and a greenway,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “How come the bureau accepts an application that is so insufficiently complete?”

“The applicant can deem it complete,” BDS planner Staci Monroe replied. “There is nothing in the code that prohibits it.”

Monroe agreed that it was not typical to review several buildings and related infrastructure at once.

“It’s an insane amount of work to put this into one land-use case,” she said.

Santner suggested the developer’s plans were not close to meeting guidelines.

“There’s nothing that stops us from asking the applicant to keep coming back until we get to something that’s approvable,” she said.

Alamo Manhattan President Matt Segrest offered no indication that the developer would break up the land-use application into smaller parts.

“I recognize this is a huge chore here,” he said. “It is. There’s no way around that. We want to get this approved as soon as we can as well.”

The staff report did not recommend approval – a routine stance in the early stages of a land-use application. However, the staff report details at least 29 distinct guidelines not yet met by the proposal. Furthermore, the city’s environmental services and transportation bureaus, as well as the BDS site development section, stated they were not able to support the application.

The design team includes WDG Architecture, HLR Architects, landscape architect Linda Tycher and Associates and engineering firm Otak.

The property is slightly north of The Old Spaghetti Factory, and bounded by Southwest Bond Avenue, Southwest Lane Street, Southwest Lowell Street and the river.

Two design advice hearings for the project took place in February and August. The project team is scheduled to return before the Design Commission on Feb. 6, 2020.

Also on Thursday:

OHSU expansion wins approval

The Portland Design Commission unanimously approved plans for Oregon Health & Science University’s 14-story hospital expansion on Marquam Hill.

Commissioners praised the proposal presented by the design team of NBBJ, based in Seattle, and Mayer/Reed, which handled the outdoor plaza.

“The response that we’re looking at today is significantly stronger than when this building (design) came into the room,” Design Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said at Thursday’s hearing.

The building will be located slightly west of the Elks Children’s Eye Clinic, which was also designed by NBBJ.

The plaza and outdoor spaces were a focus of the Design Commission’s attention throughout the review process. The designers responded to earlier criticism that the plaza’s pathways weren’t well integrated and lacked separation between pedestrians and cars. The final design expanded outdoor seating, added street trees and also created a landscape buffer between the sidewalk and street.

“Your collective feedback has greatly improved the hospital design as well as the public plaza,” said José Sama, a principal with NBBJ, which recently opened a Portland office.

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A proposal for Oregon Health & Science University‘s 14-story expansion appears to be close to earning the Portland Design Commission‘s approval, but first a number of concerns about outdoor spaces must be addressed.

Commissioners discussed the project for nearly three hours on Thursday. With a Bureau of Development Services staff report recommending denial pending improvements to address several unmet guidelines, commissioners opted to continue the hearing until Dec. 12. A vote will likely take place then.

The design team of NBBJ‘s Seattle office and Portland landscape architect Mayer/Reed unveiled new renderings of the massive hospital expansion atop Marquam Hill. The design consists of two towering glass-and-steel wings with a white spandrel glass frame over a podium clad with a warmer, reddish panel. The building on Southwest Campus Drive would have 526,297 square feet of interior space, with three levels of parking and three sky-bridges connecting to adjacent buildings.

The building would look over a garden cut through by an Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible path. The OHSU expansion project would be on the site of the former School of Dentistry building, which was demolished. Two design advice hearings took place previously.

Design commissioners’ comments focused on the garden and a pavilion that overlooks it.

“The problem with that overlook is it’s not connected to the inside,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “It’s not connected to the outside.”

Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston, picking up on written comments submitted by Commissioner Jessica Molinar, who was absent, said the garden lacks a gathering place.

“It’s all path, no place,” she said.

Carol Mayer-Reed, principal of Mayer/Reed, defended the design by saying the site is limited by a 10-foot grade change, neighboring buildings including the Elks Children’s Eye Clinic and substantial underground infrastructure that rules out tree plantings along the sidewalk.

“We want to do all of the same things you do; we just have a very constrained site,” she told commissioners.

NBBJ partner Jose Sama said the path has a destination: the building’s front door.

Design commissioners told Mayer-Reed and project landscape architect Tim Strand to try again.

“The space has got to be activated, and I’m sure you can get there,” Livingston said.

In some ways, the designers are wrestling with a decision made 100 years ago. OHSU moved to Marquam Hill in 1919 to land donated by a railroad that couldn’t make the site work for rail. Designers have since puzzled over how to move people from points below to the hill.

That question has become more acute as OHSU has become one of the state’s largest employers. Now, Metro and TriMet plan to build the Southwest Corridor light-rail project below the site. A connector from Barbur Boulevard is envisioned that would complement the aerial tram that was completed in the South Waterfront in 2006.

Overall, design commissioners praised the expansion building, although they challenged details such as the placement of white fins on the exterior. Commissioners indicated OHSU will have an approvable project if designers can fix access issues with the overlook and garden.

“In general, the building is a very handsome building,” Santner said. “It’s cohesive. We’re just asking you to do the impossible so we can really truly say you’re meeting design guidelines, because we have a responsibility to do so.”

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A proposed 14-story hospital tower at Oregon Health & Science University‘s Marquam Hill campus went before the Portland Design Commission for a second design advice hearing Thursday. Commissioners were happy with alterations the design team made to the façade, but still had concerns about the local impact.

The new facility would contain adult acute-care services on two floors and women’s and children’s programs on four floors, including a relocation of the neonatal intensive care unit and mother-baby unit. Sky-bridges will connect the tower to the main hospital and the Kohler Pavilion.

The tower design by Seattle-based architectural firm NBBJ was previously criticized for an imposing concrete design that was too cold. Commissioners also said an overhang above a drop-off area would block too much sunlight from those entering the building or waiting outside.

The new design incorporates more glass to give the building a brighter, more reflective look, and at the base the building features a wood-like finish to feel more natural and warm. The overhang has also been pushed back, allowing more sunlight to hit the sidewalk and the incorporation of landscaping at the ground level.

“The way this opens up is actually quite attractive,” commission vice chairman Samuel Rodriguez said. “It does a great service to the pedestrian experience.”

Parking was still a point of concern for commissioners. Three floors of above-grade parking and eight floors for clinical programs are planned, which commissioners said will create too much traffic on nearby Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard. Chairwoman Julie Livingston, who said she generally likes the modifications made, said parking will have to split across the site so one area doesn’t become too congested.

“The modifications you’ve made are slight, but also successful,” she said. “You are moving in the right direction on almost every issue, but that doesn’t mean those issues are resolved.”

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Designers of a proposed 14-story hospital tower at Oregon Health and Science University have work to do to meet city guidelines, design commissioners said.

The tower’s ground floor makes little concession to the pedestrian realm and to interaction with surrounding streets and buildings, commissioners said.

The hearing Thursday was an initial design advice meeting for the project. The team will return for a second meeting with the Portland Design Commission on June 27.

OHSU proposes to build the tower on its Marquam Hill campus adjacent to the existing Elks Children’s Eye Clinic on Southwest Campus Drive. The design is from NBBJ, a Seattle-based architecture firm. The project envisions three sky-bridges connecting to existing buildings and approximately 190 additional parking spaces. The building is limited in height to 580 feet above sea level.

Mayer/Reed is on board as landscape architect, and Skanska is providing construction consulting services.

Commissioners said shear walls and imposing facades contribute little to the ground-floor experience.

“The pedestrian experience, there’s not a great one on lower Campus Drive right now,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “This doesn’t necessarily improve it significantly.”

The project is subject to Marquam Hill design guidelines. Two of the nine guidelines focus on the pedestrian experience, Livingston noted.

“We take it seriously, and we will definitely have a lot of discussion about what’s going on at the ground floor of this building,” she said.

The project team must grapple with a number of site constraints, including existing retaining walls left from the foundation of a demolished dentistry building. Those retaining walls cannot be removed, said Jose Sama, an NBBJ partner who leads the firm’s health care practice.

“We cannot displace that, so placing the hospital’s actual cores becomes a bit tricky when looking at massing options,” he said.

Architects considered and rejected other options, including cantilevering the proposed tower over the Elks Children’s Eye Clinic.

The design features what Sama called a “woven fabric of metal and glass” and staggered windows to disperse light. Commissioners suggested the facades may need to be simplified.

“It sounds like there’s a general consensus saying there’s too much going on,” Livingston said. “You’ve got a really difficult site; that’s a given. An incredibly complex program. Something should be simple. It seems a real serious run should be made at simplifying the architecture.”

The project is undergoing a parking review. A Homestead neighborhood resident, Anton Vetterlein, expressed concern about traffic impacts on lower Southwest Campus Drive. Vetterlein served on an advisory board for the city’s 2003 Marquam Hill Plan. The plan set a goal to encourage OHSU employees, patients and students to use Southwest Sam Jackson Park Road instead of Campus Drive, and to reduce traffic on neighborhood streets. That largely hasn’t happened, Vetterlein said in public testimony.

“This project needs to show some progress for changing that circulation plan,” he said.

The project comes as OHSU seeks to meet demand for health care from the Portland-metro area’s growing population, both at the Marquam Hill campus and in the South Waterfront. The health care industry has been an economic bright spot locally and nationally, driving high-paying jobs and a long list of major construction projects.

The tower would focus on women’s and children’s health programs, including a modernized neonatal intensive care unit and labor-and-delivery services. The building would have the Pacific Northwest’s only comprehensive fetal surgery program. It would also include two floors of adult inpatient services for neurology, oncology and other complex surgical services, OHSU spokeswoman Franny White stated in an email.

Correction: The proposed building would top out at approximately 580 feet above sea level, the limit according to Marquam Hill Plan District rules in city code. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the building would be 580 feet tall.

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Oregon Health & Science University appears to be taking steps to build on its campus property formerly occupied by its School of Dentistry.

A pre-application conference with the Portland Bureau of Development Services to discuss construction of a proposed 14-story tower on that site has been scheduled for Nov. 27. According to , the project, as proposed by OHSU, would be an expansion of inpatient services, but few other details have been made public.

Drawings submitted to BDS indicate that global architecture firm NBBJ and general contractor Skanska USA Building are involved in the project.

Approximately 200 to 300 patient parking spaces are also proposed for the development.

Following the pre-application conference, the project is likely to enter the city’s design review process involving the Portland Design Commission.

OHSU has long planned for redevelopment of the former School of Dentistry site. Demolition of the old 140,000-square-foot school started in early 2017 and was expected to take up to two years to complete. The old building was constructed in 1956, but vacated four years ago. The new School of Dentistry is now in the Skourtes Tower in the South Waterfront District.

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