UChicago Medicine plans free standing cancer center

UChicago Medicine has detailed their plans for Chicago’s first free standing cancer center. Planned for a site along W. 57th St between S. Drexel Ave and S. Maryland Ave, the 575,000-square-foot facility will provide patients and the community access to the newest diagnostic innovations and leading-edge therapies.

Building a world-class cancer center, the university has tapped CannonDesign to design the seven-story building which will be topped with a mechanical penthouse and set into the ground with a lower-level support floor. Set to cost $815 million, the new center is expected to serve 200,000 outpatient visits and 5,000 inpatient admissions annually.

The building will include 80 private beds dedicated to patients with cancer, split between 64 medical-surgical and 16 ICU. To accommodate overnight stays, family space will be included. 90 consultation and outpatient exam rooms will be included in the building, while a rapid assessment/urgent care clinic will be provided separately to protect immunocompromised oncology patients from exposure to other patients.

More spaces provided by the facility will include infusion therapy rooms grouped by cancer type to replace an outdated open design; cancer imaging equipment (two MRIs, two CT scanners, two ultrasound units, two procedure rooms with mobile C-arm/fluoroscopy and an X-ray); a breast center that will include screening and diagnostic imaging and biopsy rooms; dedicated clinical trial spaces, for streamlined access to the latest research; a center focused on prevention, detection, treatment and survival, offering complementary therapies, stress reduction, community education and well-being support; as well as shell space that can expand vertically and horizontally, providing flexibility for future growth and technology.

UChicago Medicine submitted a request to the state regulatory board seeking approval for the design and planned site for the proposed center back in January 2022. After holding a public meeting in February 2022, UChicago Medicine filed a subsequent certificate of need application for construction this past Fall 2022. 

The organization expects construction to start in the latter half of 2023 depending on regulatory approval with the cancer center set to open to patients in 2027.