New York, USA

“Through an expressive architecture, an artful arrangement of human-centered healing spaces, and a robust clinical and technology platform that uniquely accommodates both next-generation treatments and early-phase clinical trials, The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is a game-changing healing community,” states Bradford Perkins and Mary-Jean Eastman.

“This wonderful building allowed us to take everything we have learned in our 25 years of work for MSK to the next level.”

Designed by Perkins Eastman and Ennead Architects, the new David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center uses the whole building as an active participant in a patient’s care, with the goal to reduce tensions and anxieties common to healthcare facilities in order to enhance patient outcomes.

Located in Manhattan’s dense Upper East Side, the massing of this 25-floor building is broken into smaller volumes to reduce its scale to fit the adjacent neighborhood.

The assemblage of the volumes represents various programmatic needs, scaled vertically from the most public to more private.

Setbacks animate the façade, allowing for a healing garden and green-roofed terraces to benefit patients, caregivers, and staff with destinations and areas of respite.

They also importantly maximize views and help to reduce the bulk of the building, the largest freestanding cancer center in New York City.

With a variety of vertical fin depths and window sizes deployed in various combinations based on programmatic needs and incident solar radiation, the building has a dynamic and responsive skin that meets the needs of occupants and programs, while creating visual interest.

Offering nearly every aspect of outpatient cancer care across many specialties, the center was designed to help restore patients’ health and well-being.

This new model of care establishes a physical and operational armature for choices that align with a patient’s day-to-day feelings, resulting in a customized and supportive experience for patients undergoing episodic and long-term treatment, their families, and medical stakeholders.

From the interior programming to the exterior expression to the variety of experiences within, the center deinstitutionalizes the hospital setting to create a truly better experience for all.

The meticulously planned and crafted interior environment not only supports coordinated care but also breaks the traditional rules of ambulatory care experiences in order to encourage next-level innovation.

Sitting above the diagnostic base, the clinical floors are arranged to support efficiencies among the many different service lines housed within this one building.

Configured to feel and function like “neighborhoods” of smaller, more intimate physician practices, these floors enable collaboration, discussion, and research endeavors.

For many patients, this means they can receive multiple services in a single visit, reducing their stress, waiting, and travel time; for clinicians, it means valuable face-to-face connections with colleagues in different specialties.

The design supports medical staff, as well, with goals to improve collaboration and provide space to attend to personal needs.

Project: David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care
Architects: Perkins Eastman
Associate Architects: Ennead Architects
Client: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center