Geoff Lang, SWMC president and chief executive officer, says Hoffman was chosen from a field of seven because of its "positive relationship with regional subcontractors and their commitment to work as a team with our architect, NBBJ, and SWMC's stakeholder." It experience in the healthcare field also didn't hurt. Hoffman was the GC for Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Hatfield Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University's West Campus and the University of Washington Medical Center's Ambulatory Surgery Pavilion.

The expansion is a major part of SWMC's Facilities Master Plan, the first such plan required under a new city ordinance. SWMC received City of Vancouver approval of their "Facilities Master Plan" at the beginning of the month. "We gave them a detailed versus conceptual plan for our main campus over the next 10 years," a source with the company tells globeSt.com. "It's supposed to streamline things so we don't have to go back and get a conditional use permit before every time we break ground."

Still, says the source, the designs still haven't been hammered out yet. Original plans for the project included two new patient towers, "and now they are tossing a lot of ideas around, including expanding not up but out to the south, but all still within the main campus."