Knight gives $100 million to OHSU

For all of those people complaining that Nike co-founder Phil Knight only gives money to Oregon Ducks athletics, check out the $100 million he's giving to Oregon Health and Science University, announced earlier this morning.

The donation, easily the largest in OHSU's history, will go specifically to their Cancer Institute. The center recently lost Lance Armstrong's cancer doc, Craig Nichols, to Providence Health System, but apparently Lance's athletic company of choice was not dissuaded to give a mighty bankroll to Pill Hill.

The first $2 million will go towards building a laboratory suite at the hospital, but the remaining $98 million Knight Fund will be "at the discretion of the director" of the Cancer Institute, Brian Drucker.

OHSU has already announced plans earlier this year to build a "Life Sciences Collaborative" set of buildings between the Ross Island and Marquam Bridges. Might a future cancer research center be built in this spot? Or somewhere else in South Waterfront?

With the condo boom suddenly over, and South Waterfront only partially built out, one can't help but wonder how this $98 million might help OHSU realize its ambitions along the Willamette.

Now if Knight would just stop ruining Oregon's football uniforms.

Comments

[billb]

As a Duck Architecture Alum , I
want to say , well done Mr. Knight
In this unsettling time ,it is
a stellar example of civic leadership , in Medicine and , by
possible application in a new building , Architecture.
AND Brian you are so wrong about the Uniforms and Helmets , they are GREAT !

[Brian Libby]

Bill,

Although I'm guessing most readers don't care about Oregon's uniforms, let me elaborate by saying that I find Nike's designs not exactly ruinous so much as a mixed bag.

Big thumbs up to having many different combinations of helmets, jerseys and pants. Huge thumbs up to the 'O' logo design and the helmets overall. But I really hate the faux diamond plating and this branding Nike does for the Ducks that is based on military-police gear. And I'm very picky about uniforms having a good old stripe down the side of the pants or nothing at all. Oh, and Nike has also helped introduce black as a third Oregon color, which I'm very much against. It's an OSU color, for crying out loud. It's great that Oregon wants to establish its own identity as a modern power rather than an old-school tradition bound team like Notre Dame or Alabama. But there ought to be a happy medium where simple good design principles are still followed, carried out in a restrained look that will endure and not look ridiculous, a look that doesn't try to impose a new heavy handed faux branding idea on the uniforms.

But as someone who writes about art/design and football, I realize that I'm way more passionate about this topic than 99.9 percent of the people out there.