The University of Chicago Medicine (UChicago Medicine) is building Chicago’s first freestanding cancer center with inpatient and outpatient services. Aiming to bridge longstanding health disparities on Chicago’s South Side, the $815 million project will consolidate care and about 200 team members currently spread across at least five buildings.
The new facility, which broke ground in September, is expected to open to patients in spring 2027.
Designed by CannonDesign in collaboration with Blue Cottage of CannonDesign and Yazdani Studio, the center will serve both patient and academic needs by supporting the research, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer. It will have a capacity for up to 200,000 outpatient visits and 5,000 inpatient admissions per year.
The 575,000-sf, seven-story building, with room for expansion, will offer 80 inpatient beds (64 medical-surgical beds and a 16-bed ICU), 90 consultation and outpatient exam rooms, and an urgent care clinic that protects immunocompromised cancer patients from extended emergency room visits. To promote patient comfort and privacy, private infusion bays will be grouped by cancer type.
To improve the patient experience, the new facility will provide support services for patients and their families—including lifestyle classes, nutrition education, survivor support, music therapy, fitness classes, and a retail store selling cancer-specific products such as wigs or clothing with openings for ports. Family-friendly features also will include showers and on-site laundry machines, inpatient family dining areas, and larger consultation rooms for patients who attend appointments with loved ones.
In addition to a ground floor that serves both the University of Chicago campus and the surrounding neighborhood, amenities include a café, wellness and meeting spaces, public art, educational opportunities, and a publicly accessible garden.
The project will create more than 500 construction jobs and will give at least 41% of $435 million in construction contracts to minority- and women-owned firms.
On the Building Team:
Owner: University of Chicago Medicine (UChicago Medicine)
Design architect and architect of record: CannonDesign
MEP engineer: Affiliated Engineers with RTM Engineers
Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Contractor: Turner Construction
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, HDR top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 100 largest institutional building design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Institutional Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Nonprofit healthcare providers turn to real estate for liquidity and to preserve capital, says Jones Lang LaSalle report
Long considered to be stable investments immune to recession, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are now feeling the effects of a cash-strapped economy as decreased charitable contributions are forcing nonprofit hospitals to pare back and seek new financing sources, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s 2009 Healthcare Real Estate Financing Outlook.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gafcon announces completion of Coronado animal care facility
Gafcon, a leading California-based construction management and consulting firm, announced today that construction is now complete on a new $1.6 million animal care facility located at 1395 First Street in Coronado, Calif.
| Aug 11, 2010
Colorado hospital wins LEED Gold
The main building of the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colo., is a 136-bed regional medical center offering a full spectrum of services, with specialties in cardiac and trauma care. Constructed primarily of brick, native sandstone, and 85,000 sf of metal panels manufactured by Centria, the 600,000-sf main building, by Denver-based HLM Design, is one of the few hospitals in the nati...
| Aug 11, 2010
Biomedical center to join London's research scene
The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, a partnership of scientific organizations researching new treatments for illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, hopes to attract leading medical scientists to its planned research center. Designed by HOK London, the building will be located on 3.
| Aug 11, 2010
Design ups comfort, care in cancer center
A new cancer center is slated to open in fall 2011 at Banner Gateway Medical Center, Gilbert, Ariz. The three-story, 120,000-sf, $107 million cancer center will contain physician clinics, medical imaging, radiation oncology, infusion therapy, and support services. A/E firm Cannon Design has created a visually open, column-free interior to increase patient comfort and care.
| Aug 11, 2010
Charlotte hospital expands its surgery capabilities
The Chicago office of RTKL designed Carolinas HealthCare System's Mercy Medical Plaza, Charlotte, N.C. The 150,000-sf hospital houses 12 operating rooms with expanded pre-operative and recovery space, a pharmacy, and a central sterile processing unit. Tenant space occupies 75,000 sf. RTKL mimicked the materials and mass of older buildings on the campus but created a more modern look by using ex...
| Aug 11, 2010
And the world's tallest building is…
At more than 2,600 feet high, the Burj Dubai (right) can still lay claim to the title of world's tallest building—although like all other super-tall buildings, its exact height will have to be recalculated now that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced a change to its height criteria.
| Aug 11, 2010
East meets West in hospital design
The Los Angeles office of HMC Architects and the Chinese firm Shunde Architectural Design Institute won the commission to design the 2.15 million-sf First People's Hospital in the Shunde District of Foshan, China. The team's winning concept organizes a series of buildings around a dynamic, curved spine element to create an interior “eco-atrium” with outdoor green space and healing g...
