Intelligent design of the Life Sciences Complex

Earlier this month, Portland State selected local firm SERA Architects to design the Life Sciences Collaborative Complex, the multi-institutional $160 million research facility that will house a gamut of science departments from Portland State, Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University.

Earlier this month, Portland State selected local firm SERA Architects to design the Life Sciences Collaborative Complex, the multi-institutional $160 million research facility that will house a gamut of science departments from Portland State, Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University.

The complex, which will be erected on OHSU’s new Schnitzer Campus on the South Waterfront, is widely seen as an expression of the deepening alliance between PSU and OHSU.

PSU selected SERA Architects in conjunction with OSU and OHSU. This is the same SERA Architects currently working on the forthcoming College Station residence hall on Southwest Fifth Avenue and Jackson Street.

However, the firm has not been officially hired, as it’s still in the process of negotiating the terms of the contract with the universities involved, according to the Office of Finance and Administration.

Over the last six months, PSU conducted preliminary design work on the complex with CollinsWoerman, a Seattle-based architecture firm that produced the initial sketches. If hired, SERA Architects will be tasked with putting the final touches on the building’s design.

“We’re ready to launch,” Vice President of Finance and Administration Lindsay Desrochers said. “We’re ready to go into full-scale design.”

The next step is to select a construction manager/general contractor, who PSU’s Assistant Director for Capital Project Management Ron Blaj said would be confirmed by the end of this week.

Each of the building’s three university tenants will occupy roughly a third of the complex, according to Desrochers, with OHSU taking up somewhat more than PSU and OSU taking up somewhat less.

OHSU gets the lion’s share of the building, both because the university is currently expanding its School of Medicine and because it has recruited a world-renowned cancer researcher, Dr. Joe Gray. It’s possible that additional lab space will be blueprinted into the building to accommodate Gray and his team of researchers, Desrochers said. 

When finished, PSU will relocate its bioscience departments—biology and chemistry—into the complex. The escalating presence of these departments in Science Buildings 1 and 2 has stretched those buildings’ carrying capacities to a breaking point.

For its part, OSU will house its pharmacy school in the complex.

The University of Oregon originally planned to run its clinical psychology program in the complex alongside its university system brethren, but the university is no longer a part of the project, Desrochers said.

The complex will cover half of a normal-sized city block on the South Waterfront, and there are pending plans to build an additional tower next to the building in the event that its departments need to expand further.

If the process unfolds smoothly, the entire facility is scheduled to open fall 2013.

Despite Oregon Rep. Mitch Greenlick’s bill (House Bill 2316) to officially merge PSU and OHSU—a bill that the House higher-education subcommittee has shelved for now—neither university president currently endorses such an action, according to Lois Davis, chief of staff for PSU President Wim Wiewel. The emphasis right now is on continued and extensive collaboration between the institutions, but a full merger  is off the table.

The complex, Davis said, is an example of the far-reaching potential of the strategic alliance formed fall 2010 between PSU and OHSU. Wiewel and OHSU President Joe Robertson—acting on the recommendations of a 22-member task force comprised of student, faculty, staff and community leaders—recently formed this alliance to collaborate on areas of mutual interest.

“This alliance allows the two universities to focus on areas of particular strategic value and importance rather than wasting energy on trying to force-fit divergent faculty cultures, administrative structures and governing systems,” Davis said.

Desrochers, who believes that Greenlick’s bill is well-intentioned but misguided, echoed this view.

“Both OHSU and PSU’s presidents believe in collaboration, and we are at different levels doing things that really are moving us in the direction of leveraging each other resources, leveraging each other’s talent, if you will,” Desrochers said. “But my concern with the idea of an instant merger is that I don’t want Portland State to lose the essence of Portland State.”

Davis explained that by housing faculty and programs from both universities in a single location midway between the two campuses, the complex will literally and symbolically bring the resources of each institution to bear on challenging research issues, as well as provide unique educational opportunities for students.

But while the formal strategic alliance has existed for only a few months, it is important to note that the two institutions have been collaborating on an informal basis for years, according to Davis.

On the academic front, the two universities are in the process of jointly establishing a School of Public Health, which kicks off with an inter-institutional vision and mission-setting retreat this May. Additionally, the research departments at both PSU and OHSU are making their own contributions to the alliance by bringing together groups of research faculty to brainstorm areas of opportunity for joint grant applications. 

And on the administrative front, PSU has opened up 235 rooms at the University Place Hotel to be used by OHSU patients and families, thus providing them with affordable and conveniently located accommodations and PSU with a new source of revenue, Davis said. 

She added that in order for a merger to make sense, one would have to demonstrate that it provides greater benefits to Oregonians than would the continuation of the strategic alliance. ?