OHSU Hospital Expansion Project

A rendering shows a new hospital building on Campus Drive on OHSU’s Marquam hill campus.
The new inpatient addition looking to the west from Campus Drive on Marquam Hill near the OHSU Casey Eye Institute. (Motiv Studio and NBBJ)

OHSU’s Marquam Hill campus is growing. Our Hospital Expansion Project will increase our ability to care for Oregonians of all ages while supporting our research and education missions.

About the project

The Hospital Expansion Project includes:

More hospital beds. We’re constructing a 14-story building that will have 128 new beds when it opens, with room for up to 64 more. With the 562 beds we already have, that will bring us to more than 750 beds when the project is done.

The building is on Southwest Campus Drive and will connect by sky bridges to OHSU Hospital and Kohler Pavilion. The building is scheduled to open in April 2026.

OHSU’s board has approved $650 million for the new building. 

Building size: 513,000 square feet. Architect: NBBJ. Contractor: Skanska.

More space for newborn and pregnancy care. We’re planning an addition to OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. The addition would expand our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), for newborns who need extra care. It would also expand space for high-risk pregnancy (perinatology) care. We would add 18 NICU beds and 11 adult beds.

OHSU’s board will consider $330 million for the addition.

Addition size: 183,000 square feet. Architect: ZGF. Contractor: Andersen Construction.

More space for brain and heart care. We’re planning to expand space for brain and heart care in Kohler Pavilion. We’re adding 30 beds for brain care and 18 beds for heart care. That will bring us to a total of 60 beds for each.

Why we’re expanding

OHSU has been at or near capacity for adults for years. Based on our population, Oregon is one of the states with the fewest adult hospital beds.

In 2019, the OHSU board approved funding to design the expansion. Then the COVID-19 pandemic put the project on hold. Since then, the need for more hospital beds has become more urgent.

Expansion will:

  • Give more people access to advanced care, including complex but nonurgent surgery.
  • Meet the needs of Oregon’s aging population.
  • Keep up with growth in the Portland area and beyond.
  • Put OHSU’s capacity on par with that of similar health care institutions on the West Coast.

Project timeline

October 2021: OHSU’s board of directors approves the first parts of the project.

January 2022: Construction starts on new 14-story building.

2026: Expected completion of new building.

The photo, angled toward the sky, shows the partly constructed new building with OHSU Hospital behind it.
The new hospital building under construction in May 2023.

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