HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > United States > Pacific West > Portland > Downtown & City of Portland


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #21  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 4:49 PM
pdxman's Avatar
pdxman pdxman is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Portland
Posts: 1,037
You can include Jim Karlock on that list too ^^^
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #22  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 4:57 PM
cab cab is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 1,450
Karlock's in Mid-Rigamortis crisis.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #23  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 5:43 PM
nehalem5 nehalem5 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 18
I've always felt that OHSU's claims of attracting biotech industry to the south waterfront were disingenuous. Not that me ,and a ton of other people I know, dont hope for Portland to attract some biotech to create opportunities to stay here rather than pay to live in san diego, boston, or the bay area.
This campus, if truly interdisciplinary and collaborative, could easily elevate OHSU into a more innovative creative center for basic science research rather than the quasi corporate model it is run as today. from pure basic science research comes the true innovative technologies and therapies...and spin offs.
I think Portland will get biotech, just by being between seattle and san fran (genentech in hillsboro for example), but this campus will foster the more important mission of just research for research sake.
and as an architecture dilletante, I can only hope that the spaces and buildings constructed will be just as innovative and inspiring, say like the salk institute in san diego.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #24  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 6:35 PM
MarkDaMan's Avatar
MarkDaMan MarkDaMan is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Portland
Posts: 7,508
OHSU's waterfront vision: 2 million square foot campus
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
DYLAN RIVERA
The Oregonian

Oregon Health & Science University, which opened its first South Waterfront high-rise beachhead just last fall, is now headed toward its biggest transformation ever.

The university's preliminary vision for its 20 acres on the South Waterfront, made public this week, proposes a true college campus from scratch that would eventually rival the Marquam Hill campus. The new Schnitzer Campus, on land donated by the Portland family in 2004, would become the center of gravity for a new educational mission uniting student doctors, nurses, dentists and others in interdisciplinary classrooms.

Five university schools would eventually relocate to the waterfront campus, while the hospital, clinics and some research would remain on Marquam Hill.

For the first time, OHSU is openly contemplating housing -- condos, apartments or student housing -- in floors above medical education centers. Making room for biotechnology industries, for years an anchor of OHSU's planning, has faded.

The scope of the plan is audacious, not just for its sheer size -- another 2 million square feet of university space is planned, about 40 percent the size of the Marquam Hill campus. Its likely massive price tag remains an unknown, though a recent $40 million donation certainly helps.

The university's intent is to create the medical campus of the future, with room to grow for decades, OHSU President Joe Robertson said Monday.

"This campus is something that will develop over the next three decades, not over the next three years," Robertson said. "We do not have a specific plan at this point. It would be presumptuous for us to have a plan at this point."

University officials stress that their plans are only a preliminary vision, but they have real hopes of putting students there within five years under a timeline being offered for the first time. A $40 million anonymous gift already in the bank will be used to break ground on their first building.

Looking ahead

Deans and professors from across the university have spent months discussing how they want medical education to work a generation from now. Portland city planners have helped them put their ideas into lines on a map that represent potential buildings, roads and parks.

In recent weeks, university officials have shown neighborhood activists and some city officials their preliminary vision, which outlines in broad terms the locations of streets and sites of buildings on the 20-acre parcel. Haggling over street locations, building designs and uses of specific planned buildings will likely follow.

The university plans 250-foot-tall buildings along Southwest Moody Avenue, with shorter buildings closer to the river. It calls for a combination light-rail and streetcar bridge to land south of the property, closer to the recently opened aerial tram landing, but different from the city's plan for a bridge to the north.

The intensely urban plan contrasts sharply with the ideas advanced over the years by the Schnitzer family, which raised the possibility of suburban-scale biotech development with a 25-foot setback from the river.

Yet OHSU's plan already presents some potential shortcomings, and issues city planners and others are likely to pick apart.

It has become more oriented to medical education than goals of thousands of private-sector biotech jobs university officials trumpeted several years ago in making a public pitch for OHSU's expansion. Because of costly underground contamination, some of its potential 6,000 parking spaces may be built in upper floors of buildings, likely to disappoint planners who push for housing and offices that overlook sidewalks.

A 100-foot riverfront greenway would comply with city code but fall short of some environmental aspirations.

"We view this as the beginning of a conversation, not the end of a conversation," said Mark Williams, OHSU South Waterfront project director. "We're very eager to involve our neighbors, city bureaus, elected officials and others in having a discussion about what this ought to look like."

With federal research dollars leveling off, and the state-financed Oregon Opportunity fund already spent, OHSU's research spending will grow at a slower pace, Robertson said.

"The Schnitzer campus was given by the Schnitzer family predominantly to enhance the educational mission," Robertson said. "It will facilitate the research mission."

It takes longer to get biotech ideas from patent to marketable product than for the standard high-tech products, Robertson said. That wasn't known as recently as five years ago, said Robertson, who became OHSU president last year.

In contrast with prior insistence that biotech companies would fit into the high-rise plans for South Waterfront, Robertson and Steve Stadum, executive vice president for OHSU, conceded that rising construction costs and high density make the waterfront a challenging sell for private-sector biotech. They said shorter building sites closer to the river would offer some lower-cost opportunities for commercial development.

Positive reactions

Only two city commissioners, neighboring landowners and the South Portland Neighborhood Association have been briefed in person so far on the vision. OHSU has met with staff of most city commissioners and the mayor.

So far, the reviews seem positive, even from neighbors and politicians who have clashed over South Waterfront in the past.

City Commissioner Sam Adams said the university's idea for a 24-hour district with high density development contrasts sharply with what the Schnitzers had proposed.

"The last conversations were for a much less robust development than OHSU has put on the table with this proposal," Adams said. "So in that sense, it feels like this proposal is ahead of what the previous owners had envisioned doing."

Commissioner Randy Leonard said he likes the transit orientation of the vision.

"If we are creating a community down there where a car becomes more of a liability than an asset, people can buy more of a house and have amenities that they couldn't otherwise afford," he said.

The Zidell family, which still runs a barge building business adjacent to the waterfront condo towers and has sued the city over its high-rise plans, likes the vision presentation, said Bob Durgan, a consultant for the family. The Zidells still want more information on the district's transportation needs and costs, he said, but it's open to selling or swapping land to help OHSU's campus.

"We're open to all alternatives," Durgan said. "We're going to work with them on anything that's symbiotic and mutually beneficial."

So far, the vision appears to have won over even the South Portland Neighborhood Association, which includes many residents who fought for years against OHSU's aerial tram.

Residents have come to terms with the high-rise scale of the waterfront section of their area, neighborhood Chairman Ken Love said.

"Overall, it's going to be a great thing for Portland," he said. "Getting away from all the condos and just getting something positive going with OHSU there."

Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532; dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/o...200.xml&coll=7
__________________
make paradise, tear up a parking lot
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #25  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 6:40 PM
MarkDaMan's Avatar
MarkDaMan MarkDaMan is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Portland
Posts: 7,508
on a related note:

PSU-OHSU merger idea refuses to quietly go away

State representative brings idea back for third go-around
Portland Business Journal - March 30, 2007
by Aliza Earnshaw
Business Journal staff writer

Though most people at Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University oppose Rep. Mitch Greenlick's proposal to merge the two institutions, no one is sorry he's brought it up -- for the third consecutive session.

Greenlick's bill proposes separating Portland State from the Oregon University System, much as OHSU was separated from the statewide higher education system 12 years ago.

Greenlick also proposes enlarging the board governing OHSU and having it govern Portland State, with the idea of merging the two over 10 years.

Greenlick, a Democrat from Portland who has had a long career in medical administration and academia, believes that economic progress throughout Oregon is hampered by the lack of a major research university comparable to the University of Washington, University of California at Los Angeles or Berkeley, Stanford University, and a host of others.

Greenlick is not alone in his belief. Economic development professionals often point to this gap in Oregon's portfolio.

Large research universities win more federal and private grants for research, spin out more companies, and attract higher-caliber faculty and students than smaller universities normally do.

Officials at OHSU and Portland State didn't like Greenlick's idea when he brought it up in the last two legislative sessions, and they don't like it any better now, even though it has a chance of being passed by a Democratic Legislature.

But they are taking this proposal as an opportunity to make the case that more funding for higher education -- and more consistent funding --is what Oregon really needs, not a costly merger between two big institutions with very different purposes and cultures.

The issue of inadequate state funding for its universities sharpened last week, when the Oregon House Ways and Means Committee recommended a higher-education budget that falls far short of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's proposed budget.

Oregon's level of support for higher education is source of continual friction between the education and legislative communities. The business community also is affected by the issue.

People at Portland State might be open to the idea of splitting off from the state university system, if not a merger with OHSU, said Mike Burton, vice provost at PSU's School of Extended Studies and a former CEO of regional government Metro.

"OHSU has done some things as a private corporation that have been good for them," said Burton. "Maybe we can look at those things and see if we can do them at Portland State. But first, you have to remove yourself from the state university system, and we should be able to have those discussions."

The main objection to merging PSU and OHSU is that the very different nature of the two institutions could result in a merger nightmare, and dilute the focus of each.

PSU is a general urban university, serving mostly undergraduates, and relying heavily on tuition for its funding.

OHSU is a medical school that relies on hospital revenue, research grants, private donations and tuition for its operations.

Both universities receive state funding, but that has diminished sharply over the years as a percentage of their total budgets.

Officials worry about a culture clash, added administrative burden and the up-front costs of a merger when both universities feel their staffs are already stretched to the limits.

OHSU took over operation of the Oregon Graduate Institute in 2001, a merger that has so far cost about $5 million -- a level of expense that's affordable within OHSU's $1 billion-plus annual budget.

However, a PSU merger would be 10 or 20 times larger, and cost much more, said Joe Robertson, OHSU president.

He also worries about losing professors and researchers.

"After progressive and successive cuts in funding, I don't think the faculty would believe that this proposal would be adequately funded," Robertson said.

"Our faculty is barraged by offers" from other institutions that can offer much more money. "Frankly, retention is sufficiently fragile that if you cast another element of uncertainty into it, you threaten it," Robertson said.

Dan Bernstine, president of Portland State University, wonders how PSU will manage if the state cuts its support for the university on leaving the statewide system, as it has done with OHSU.

"If we lose the $137 million we get annually from the state, and become a quasi-private corporation, that still has to come from somewhere," said Bernstine.

Lacking OHSU's vast network of hospital and clinic services, Portland State's opportunities to support itself don't begin to compare.

Scott Gibson, who serves on OHSU's board, thinks that while a PSU-OHSU merger isn't suitable, Oregon's universities could benefit from two other mergers: a single business school combining those at PSU, University of Oregon and Oregon State University, and a merger of PSU's engineering school into OSU's.

"It makes more sense to do some smaller integrations that are profound, selected and thoughtful," he said.

Merging like entities would be "more manageable, with much quicker payback" than a PSU-OHSU merger.

Some university officials are suggesting that not only PSU, but also Oregon State University and University of Oregon might be better off outside of the overall university system.

These three universities have more opportunity to win research dollars from federal agencies and others, as well as milk their relationships with alumni and other donors for endowment and building funds.

Pulling the three larger universities out of the system could leave more funding for Oregon's three smaller regional universities, which are in even more dire financial shape than the larger three.

aearnshaw@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3433
http://portland.bizjournals.com/port...ml?t=printable
__________________
make paradise, tear up a parking lot
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #26  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 6:51 PM
65MAX's Avatar
65MAX 65MAX is offline
Karma Police
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: People's Republic of Portland
Posts: 2,138
Thumbs up

Thank god they're not doing the original suburban-style campus plan. That would have been a tragic waste of prime central city land.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #27  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 7:08 PM
mhays mhays is offline
Never Dell
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 19,748
This new plan sounds pretty cool. I'd love to see a rendering.

Too many cities are pinning their aspirations on biotech. Portland has a fine chance at it, but few cities will be successful on a major scale. So kudos to the powers that be for adjusting the SoWa concept to something that's in-tune with what they can deliver.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #28  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 7:22 PM
65MAX's Avatar
65MAX 65MAX is offline
Karma Police
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: People's Republic of Portland
Posts: 2,138
Agreed. Plus, this plan wouldn't preclude adding biotech to the campus should they have real success in pursuing that type of R&D.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #29  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 10:55 PM
tworivers's Avatar
tworivers tworivers is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Portland/Cascadia
Posts: 2,598
*double post*
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #30  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 10:58 PM
tworivers's Avatar
tworivers tworivers is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Portland/Cascadia
Posts: 2,598
Does anyone here think that OHSU really has the means or the interest in cutting-edge design to pull off something like the Salk Institute? Kohler and the Ctr for Health & Healing give me some hope, but still I wonder. Wasn't the Salk featured in a recent issue of Metropolis? Or Dwell?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #31  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 11:39 PM
nehalem5 nehalem5 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 18
The vollum institute up on the ohsu main campus is an example of higher aspirations in terms of design for OHSU. the founder of tektronix gave a large sum of money to ohsu. instead of dividing it among various OHSU departments they decided to invest in a world class neuroscience institute. The result was the Vollum which was built for around 15 million (no small change back in 87). I think ZGF was the architect. Its no salk by any means but it did advance the concept of research space in terms of open bays to encourage interactions between scientists. The vollum lacks the elegant lines and stark isolation of the salk because it was built between two existing buildings but it does exude a stately ivory tower ambience. given the high profile location of this campus, perhaps a few more large donations could happen to make design a factor. make the link between design and creativity or even health in a holistic sense and the sky's the limit, at least up to 250 feet.

http://www.ohsu.edu/vollum/
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #32  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 11:45 PM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
Submarine de Nucléar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Missouri
Posts: 4,477
I'd opt for something like the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto. It's a gorgeous building.




pics from http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/ccbr/

Or, the Vancouver, BC Cancer Research Lab:

from canada.archiseek

They removed the pic, so check out the link above.

Last edited by zilfondel; Apr 5, 2007 at 5:48 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #33  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 12:08 AM
nehalem5 nehalem5 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 18
well, even cincy has more cutting edge academic architecture than we do...
http://vontz.uc.edu/architecture2.cfm
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #34  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 1:19 AM
Dougall5505's Avatar
Dougall5505 Dougall5505 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: P-town
Posts: 1,976
this is great but on a different topic has anyone noticed how bright the OHSU center for health and healing is at night? It seems like a building that boasts of its energy effency like this one does would think about turning off the lights at night to conserve energy. Maybe this is a stupid observation but im just putting it out there
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #35  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 2:10 AM
pdxman's Avatar
pdxman pdxman is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Portland
Posts: 1,037
Interesting that they're floating the idea of a streetcar extension down the middle of the proposed campus. It seems like the "in" thing to do these days in portland. I'm not complaining tho...Hopefully they think a little out of the box in regards to the architecture of the campus. I'd hate to see a bunch of wellness centers along i-5.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #36  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 2:58 AM
mhays mhays is offline
Never Dell
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 19,748
Quote:
Originally Posted by zilfondel View Post
I'd opt for something like the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto. It's a gorgeous building.
Yes, but what's that hideous monster looming above it?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #37  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 2:17 PM
sirsimon sirsimon is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Nowhere...now here
Posts: 355
"Yes, but what's that hideous monster looming above it?"

^ UFO!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #38  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 5:50 PM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
Submarine de Nucléar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Missouri
Posts: 4,477
^^^ Uh, that's the building I was referring to. The upper part houses the labs, I believe. The older part is also part of it... not such a good angle for the photo, it looks really cool from a different angle.

The other Vancouver research center rocks tho - Arthur Erickson described it. Both buildings won architectural awards.

More pics of the Terrence Donnelly Centre




http://www.architecture.com/go/Archi...ards_5357.html

http://archiguide.free.fr/PH/CAN/Tor...toCCBRBeAl.jpg

It won the 2006 British RIBA award.

Last edited by zilfondel; Apr 5, 2007 at 5:57 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #39  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 7:46 PM
mhays mhays is offline
Never Dell
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 19,748
I'm sure architects love it. But I suspect the local citizens would rate the old building far higher, and that many would have nasty words for the new one.

PS, my last comment was supposed to be ironic!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #40  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 8:15 PM
PDX City-State PDX City-State is offline
Well designed mixed use
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: under the Burnside Bridge
Posts: 1,589
Quote:
But I suspect the local citizens would rate the old building far higher
But what do local citizens know about architecture? Not much. Ever been to a neighborhood association meeting in Portland? Most folks want buildings that look like they were built 100 years ago--and they still want them to be as green as possilble. It doesn't work like that.
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > United States > Pacific West > Portland > Downtown & City of Portland
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:32 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.