April 18, 2025

Harborview's $1.7B expansion gains detail

Renderings via HDR [enlarge]

Under current approved funding, the northwest parking garage would be replaced with a new tower.

In the fall of 2020, during the depths of the pandemic, King County voters approved an over $1.7 billion bond measure to fund an expansion of the Harborview Medical Center on First Hill, plus some renovations. (This is not to be confused with a separate, subsequent plan to eventually expand south into Yesler Terrace.) Harborview is run by the county and UW Medicine.

The $1.7 billion plan — covering the next 20 years — falls into what the city calls a Major Institution Master Plan, or MIMP. Its advisory committee has been briefed periodically on the expansion, which had been working within the city's prior 240-foot zoning. Harborview now wants to raise that limit to 320 feet, and slightly expand the footprint of its MIO (Major Institutional Overlay).

For that proposed amendment, a public meeting will be held April 24 at Harborview. An environmental impact statement will also be required for the roughly 648,380 square feet of new construction proposed for the campus at 325 Ninth Ave. The county values the main new building at around $1 billion; separate renovations for other buildings (one off campus), would round up to around $700 million. A request for design-build qualifications went out last fall; three groups are now on the short list.

[enlarge]

Under future funding, more new buildings could rise (outlined in yellow).

As part of the amendment and plan, some old structures could be razed; those could include the East Clinic building. Renovations and seismic retrofits of older structure would include Harborview Hall, now a homeless shelter on Ninth. Parking would be reconfigured.

The most dramatic change, on the northwest corner of the campus (where Jefferson Street bends into Eighth Avenue), would be the replacement of a structured parking garage and its rooftop park. The new 15-story replacement building would have about 480,000 square feet above grade. It would also have two or three helipads on top. (Harborview currently has three helipads on the southwest garage, and receives 1,000 to 1,330 landings annually.) The goal for occupancy is late 2028 or early 2029.

That northwest tower would, including its mechanical penthouse and rooftop helipad, rise perhaps 260 feet above grade — not to the 320-foot limit. There would be four levels of underground parking, with around 350 stalls. Above would be about 360 inpatient hospital beds, plus space for an expanded emergency department and other services.

All these figures, based on Harborview presentation materials and its bond project website, are subject to change.

Working with Harborview on its plan are TGB Architects; Vanir, construction manager; Transpo Group, traffic engineer; Site Workshop, landscape architect; Magnusson Klemencic Associates, structural engineer; ColeBreit Engineering, MEP; KPFF, civil engineer; ESA, heliport consultant; Langan Environmental Engineers; Cumming Management Group, cost estimating; and HDR, which has provided architectural renderings.

Who will build the project? The three shortlisted firms, announced in November, are Hoffman-Lewis (a consortium), Mortenson and Sellen Construction. Another, more detailed request for proposals should follow this spring or summer; final selection could come by year's end. A possible start date could follow next year.

BEYOND THE 2020 BOND MEASURE

More dramatic changes may lie ahead for Harborview, which opened its first building in 1931 on First Hill. The campus has been growing ever since.

Assuming the northwest tower gets built, with its new helipads and hospital beds operating, that could clear the path to demolishing the old southwest garage and helipad structure, at Eighth and Alder.

There, under a future funding effort, Harborview envisions a companion tower of about the same size — perhaps 480,000 square feet — and height. That tower would also depend on a deal with WSDOT to acquire some of the land between the two existing garages and freeway. (Harborview says an agreement is in place.)

For that and the new northwest tower, a new street/driveway would be created next to the freeway, roughly aligned with Seventh Avenue.

Then there's the notion of demolishing the old two-story campus security office building, (aka the Walter Scott Brown building), on the corner of Ninth and Jefferson. In its place might eventually follow a new 10-story building, with about 102,000 square feet.

At Ninth and Alder, assuming the old East Clinic has been demolished, a new building could follow — not to be over 240 feet in height. That would have around 14 stories and 280,000 square feet.

The city is now considering Harborview's proposed amendment to the old MIO; that's separate from the 2020 bond measure. So if the amendment is approved, another bond measure could be expected in future years for further expansion.

Thus, we could eventually see about 1.5 million square of new construction on the campus. That plus renovations and open space would total around 3.8 million square. Phasing would be over the next several decades. The East Clinic site could, if cleared, serve as an interim park in the near term.

WHAT ABOUT YESLER TERRACE?

Separately, what Harborview calls 9th & Alder is the bare corner development site at Yesler Terrace, acquired from Kaiser Permanente last year for $52 million. The plan there, outside the current MIO boundaries, is for a new medical office building with no architect, timeline or budget attached. Its future for the next decade is probably construction staging for the main campus to the north.