OHSU BREAKS GROUND ON NEW RESEARCH BUILDING

State-of-the-art facility leads OHSU research expansion

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Oregon Opportunity arrives this week as Oregon Health & Science University breaks ground for a new biomedical research building today. The 260,000-square-foot facility is the first step in the university's new research recruitment and expansion effort dubbed The Oregon Opportunity. The next step will be the groundbreaking for a new patient care facility adjacent to OHSU Hospital later this fall.

"Before you can recruit top-notch scientists and before you can treat more patients you need the buildings to put them in," said OHSU President Peter O. Kohler, M.D.

Construction of the new research and patient care buildings are possible because of the investment of The Oregon Opportunity funds in OHSU. The Oregon Opportunity involves a voter-approved state investment of $200 million and a private $300 million fundraising effort.

Under The Oregon Opportunity OHSU seeks to recruit approximately 350 scientists who will in turn attract new research grants, launch new programs and capitalize on advances in the form of biotech spin-off companies. Many of those researchers will work in the new biomedical research building, which will house a pediatric research center, an advanced imaging research center and a total 192,000-square-feet of research laboratories.

"The design of this building will take this campus to the forefront of biomedical technology," said Daniel Dorsa, Ph.D., vice president for research at OHSU. One of the unique functional features will be a physical linkage between the new Biomedical Research Building and the Outpatient Clinic, facilitating synergistic interaction and integration between research and clinical services.

A further unique aspect of this project is that Hoffman Construction and Andersen Construction companies, both headquartered in Oregon, have formed a joint venture to construct the two buildings. With the two companies sharing resources on this large-scale project, as well as other novel efforts such as construction worker shuttles and on-site meals, additional traffic congestion on Marquam Hill will be reduced during the 28 to 36 months of construction.