…In Portland, construction workers plugged away this week on the Knight Cancer Institute’s new building. Draped in scaffolding on two sides, the 320,000-square-foot building is the latest piece in a decade-long investment in the South Waterfront neighborhood.

…It all culminates in the Knight building, which Edwards described as “Star Trek-like,” that will open just after he wraps up his doctorate this year.

“I’m a peon in this whole thing, but it’s very nice to see all these large structural changes around me,” he said.

Big shiny buildings do more than just woo students and add fodder for marketing literature. Jaschik, with the higher education publication, said the facilities matter.

“They enable the best research to be done, and equally or maybe more important, they help a university recruit researchers. Top scientists want the best facilities, and it is those scientists who will land big grants,” he said.

Read more about the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute progress here.