Some of the world’s most exciting medical advances are happening in the field of cancer care — but you probably wouldn’t know it from the street. Cutting-edge research and treatment often takes place in buildings that are bland, formulaic, and increasingly ill-suited to changing methods of care. Some of these facilities are fortress-like structures, isolated from the communities they serve. Inside, confusing corridors lead to dispiritingly generic waiting rooms; a clinical, impersonal atmosphere is all too common.
But what if the design of a cancer center was every bit as revolutionary as the medical breakthroughs that are changing the field?
When Emory Healthcare’s Winship Cancer Institute, one of the nation’s leading research and treatment centers, announced its intention to build “a cancer center that has never before been seen or imagined,” we jumped at the opportunity.