University of New Mexico Cancer Treatment and Clinical Research Facility - Albuquerque, NM

Project category: New construction (completed March 2010)

Chief administrator: Dr. Cheryl Willman, Director and Chief Executive Officer, UNM Cancer Center, (505) 272-4630

Firms: Rohde May Keller McNamara Architecture, P.C., (505) 243-5454; VOA Associates Incorporated, (312) 554-1400

Design team: Jim McNamara, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Mark Rohde, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Dan Caruso, AAIA, Project Manager (Rohde May Keller McNamara Architecture, P.C.); Paul Hansen, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Michael Siegel, AIA, Project Manager; Rika Semba, IIDA, NCIDQ, Interior Designer (VOA Associates Incorporated)

Photography: ©2010 Kirk Gittings

Total building area (sq. ft.): 206,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $279

Total construction cost (excluding land): $57,500,000

The Cancer Treatment and Clinical Research Facility is a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center and major addition to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Campus. The cancer center includes a multidisciplinary patient clinic, therapeutics and treatment services, diagnostics and targeted screening, clinical trials, administration, and an education center. Site selection was based on campus continuity and adjacency to an existing outpatient surgical and imaging services (OSIS) facility. Attaching directly to this facility allowed for the cost-effective expansion of the existing imaging facility and the sharing of technical and operational resources. The building is oriented to maximize light exposure to its north and south sides, with the main entry, imaging entry, and OSIS entry sharing a common south-side arrival plaza on level 1. Hillside topography provides the facility with an additional ground level that daylights to the west and allows for separate entrances to radiation oncology and administration.

Cancer Center Director and CEO Dr. Cheryl Willman charged lead project designers Mark Rohde, AIA, (RMKM) and Brandon Lipman, AIA, (VOA) with creating an artful environment where a sense of welcome and comfort would displace the isolation and anxiety commonly experienced by cancer patients. The project's design concept and solution was twofold.

First (pragmatically), the objective was to create a highly functional and technologically state-of-the-art facility that would promote efficient patient care and high staff performance. This concept drove the design of a five-level facility comprised of simple and flexible floor plans that organize specialty clinics, treatment modalities, and team areas to optimize efficiency and promote idea sharing to develop the best patient-care strategies. Patient circulation is clear and simple, through naturally lit corridors, virtually all of which connect to daylight, views, and outside awareness. A "Lantern of Hope" atrium connects the main lobby to the sky through four stories, establishing a vertical emphasis and dramatic, light-filled common reference for each level.

Second (on a more emotional level), the project team focused on creating an inviting and uplifting "health spa/hospitality-like" environment that encourages wellness and hope in an architectural language sensitive to New Mexico's unique tri-cultural patient base. This evidence-based concept influenced the design of a network of public space (circulation and waiting areas) that engage the outdoors and connect patients and staff to the site's unique high desert context.

Continuing the concept of nature's healing qualities, indoor and outdoor meditation spaces offer quiet contemplation and meditation embracing universal spiritual references so that all faiths can find peaceful respite amid the treatment environment. Level 5 is treated as the "penthouse" of the facility and is dedicated to all-day chemotherapy patients. A continuous serpentine window wall provides soft north light and showcases spectacular views of the Sandia Mountains and surrounding environment. An adjacent rooftop garden allows patients the option to enjoy the outdoors without interrupting their treatment.