The Oregonian
June 26th, 2014
Portland dignitaries hailed the new $300 million Collaborative Life Sciences Building that opened in the South Waterfront on Thursday as one that will dramatically change medical education and the neighborhood for the better.
The building, funded by state taxpayers, wealthy donors and other contributions, will allow doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and physician assistants to be trained together rather than in separate buildings by separate faculties.And it will add jobs and vitality to the new urban neighborhood emerging from the former industrial land south of the Marquam Bridge along the west bank of the Willamette River, said Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, who helped lay the planning and zoning groundwork for the area as a city commissioner in the 1990s.
Hales called the building, with its 12-story tower and state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories, "a big, bold bet on Portland's future."