Oregon Health and Science University

Joint Venture Pairs Local GCs for Two Large Projects

by Sheila Bacon

Competing Portland general contractors Hoffman Construction and Andersen Construction have teamed up to build two large projects on the campus of Oregon Health and Science University. Image courtesy of OHSU

Two contractors who usually find themselves battling each other for the big jobs have teamed up to build $321 million in new construction at Oregon Health and Science University's campus on Portland's Marquam Hill.

Hoffman Construction and Andersen Construction - both of Portland - formed Hoffman/Andersen Joint Venture to tackle the $105 million Biomedical Research Building and the $216 million Patient Care Facility.

The new projects are the first physical embodiments of the university's Oregon Opportunity campaign, a public/private fund-raising endeavor to support and expand OHSU's programs and initiatives and to accelerate its biomedical research activities.

Hoffman and Andersen have worked extensively on OHSU's campus in the past, said Janine Stanton, the university's facilities management and construction program director, but never before as a team. However, both companies have worked on campus simultaneously and have collaborated to coordinate site access and material laydown.

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"Hoffman has a lot of experience working on the hill and with complicated sites, and Andersen has a huge amount of experience working in our hospital," Stanton said. "I think they'll bring to the table the best of both worlds."

The venture is a 60-40 partnership, said Bart Eberwein, Hoffman's vice president of business development. Hoffman has sponsorship of the job, and three team members from Hoffman and two from Andersen comprise its executive committee. The decision to partner increased both contractors' chances of working on the project.

"We didn't think OHSU would award one contractor both projects," Eberwein said. "We'd rather work with a friend than an unknown."

Work on the Patient Care Facility has started with construction of the garage, requiring the closure of S.W. Campus Drive, one of only two roads into and out of campus. Image courtesy of OHSU

Construction on the Biomedical Research Building started in February and will be completed in fall 2005. The 260,000-sq.-ft., 11-story building will offer research laboratory and office space, an advanced imaging research center and two floors of comparative medicine.

The building was designed to help the university recruit more of the nation's top researchers.

A skybridge will connect the new facility to the existing outpatient clinic building in which many of OHSU's ambulatory practices are currently located. The facility's architect is Portland's Zimmer Gunsul Frasca.

Work on utility relocation for the Patient Care Facility started in April, with mass excavation starting last month. That project is expected to wrap up in late 2005 or early 2006. Also 11 stories, the 325,000-sq.-ft. building will house 144 inpatient beds, a

cardiac acute care unit, two oncology units, an intensive care unit, an eight-room operating suite and an entire floor dedicated to sterile processing to support all surgical services.

It features skybridge connections with OHSU Hospital and a four-level, 456-space parking garage. Architecture firm Perkins and Will of Los Angeles is working with associate architects Peterson Kolberg and Associates of Portland.

The new structures join 50 other buildings on the campus. OHSU educates health and high-technology professionals, scientists and environmental engineers, and it undertakes the functions of patient care, community service and biomedical research.

Various Challenges

The Biomedical Research Building is hemmed in on three sides by existing outpatient and research facilities, while the fourth side is a steep, heavily wooded hillside that drops 200 ft. to a road below.

"From an access standpoint, it's like building in a closet," said Bill Forsythe, program manager with Hoffman.

A rigorous, six-month planning phase focused on convincing the city that the necessary removal of trees from the slope would not cause erosion, Forsythe added. Builders agreed that excavation of four levels of below-grade parking would be done during the summer months before the fall and winter rains set in. Crews kept to the tight schedule and had planned to finish digging by the first of this month.

The 260,000-sq.-ft., 11-story Biomedical Research Building will offer research laboratory and office space; an advanced imaging research center and two floors of Comparative Medicine. Image courtesy of OHSU

The close proximity of the surrounding buildings necessitated an interesting

placement of cranes. As usual, one sits in the middle of the jobsite and is used to construct the building, but another crane is located at the foot of the hill and is used to offload delivered materials and swing them up to the jobsite.

Without this second crane, loads would have to be lifted over occupied buildings; essentially forbidden in the city of Portland.

Crews building the Patient Care Facility are currently focusing efforts on the facility's parking garage, a job that requires the temporary closure and relocation of S.W. Campus Drive, one of only two roads into and out of campus. The road will eventually reopen over the top of the parking garage, but the work requires the street to be closed through April, funneling student, staff and construction traffic to just one road.

While work begins on the garage, the design of a public tram that will connect the OHSU campus to the developing South Waterfront district is ongoing. The tram's terminus will be located at the Patient Care Facility, although final designs are not yet complete, nor are plans for how the terminus will integrate with the facility.

While difficult terrain and tight sites make the construction of OHSU's two new buildings complicated, the collaboration between Andersen and Hoffman doesn't seem to pose much of a challenge. Many of the project managers, superintendents and crew members have worked together before or already know each other from past jobs at OHSU, Forsythe said.

"It's almost like we're formalizing an informal partnering that has been going on for years," he added.

The large footprint challenged builders as well as designers. The building is much wider than it is tall, so the construction schedule would not allow the entire shell of the building to be enclosed before build-out began.

To keep on track, interior build-out had to start well before the roof and exterior walls were in place, said Jeff Smith, Turner Construction (Seattle) project superintendent. Last winter, mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-in crews followed directly behind shell construction, working under a temporary false roof that was created at every deck.