Cancer Center Moves Beyond a Typical Healthcare Setting

How can the right team overcome programmatic challenges, last-minute changes, and logistical difficulties to achieve a calming, healing environment for patients and families struggling with cancer? Planning, communication, and working together (plus a few sleepless nights and long shifts) helped make the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center at the University of Virginia (UVA) move from dream to reality.

As a National Cancer Institute-designated facility, the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center provides patients with a beautiful and comforting environment where families can receive the support they need in their fight against cancer. The 150,000-square-foot facility is named for the late Virginia State Sen. Emily Couric.

The center is part of an overall campus modernization effort by UVA that also involves a hospital bed expansion and connective elements that will tie together the cancer center, bed expansion, and existing parking garages.

 

Designing a beautiful and healing space

The main goal of the facility was to be a warm, dignified placed for patients to receive treatment. UVA formed focus groups of clinical staff, department administrators, and some former patients who met with ZGF Architects to talk about the needs of patients and family members, as well as staff and physicians.

Administration and staff, along with the design team, toured multiple facilities to deliver a plan that captures a feeling of warmth and comfort. As a result, the interior of the building does not look institutional; it is a calming, inviting atmosphere that features cherry paneling and wood frames. There is a meditation and reflection room on the first floor. 

The style of the building is radically different from anything else in the area, with its inverted (or butterfly) roof. UVA wanted a modern building that still spoke to the campus’s overall Jeffersonian style. Materials included brick, sandstone, and copper siding, which carry through to the connective elements. Everything is curved; columns are prevalent in the design, creating a modern space that still incorporates a lot of the Jeffersonian characteristics.

Under the direction of UVA and the project team, the facility was designed to achieve LEED Silver certification by the United States Green Building Council. With more than 21,000 square feet of glass, the building allows for a lot of natural light to enter and uses a color scheme that embodies nature. The center contains three reflective gardens, including a rooftop garden, and was constructed with natural materials, such as bamboo flooring and locally resourced wood.

In addition, 90% of all construction waste was recycled. The project team used local suppliers for all 207,000 bricks and 1,700 pieces of sandstone. While getting some of the materials was a challenge at times, the resulting healing environment has been well received.

Making room for cutting-edge technology

Construction of complex structures like the cancer center is never without surprises, and this project was no exception. Over the course of construction, there were major program changes to the radiation oncology and radiology departments that impacted the design of most of the procedure areas and changed much of the required equipment.