The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

The 750,000-square-foot MSK cancer care facility foregrounds the development and utilization of innovative outpatient treatment programs.

At 25-stories tall, the massing is broken into smaller volumes to reduce the scale of the building to fit the adjacent neighborhood. The assemblage of smaller scale volumes represents various programmatic needs, scaled vertically from most public to more private. Visual depth is achieved by means of the texture across the façade, and light-toned terra cotta is used to suggest the building’s positive and hopeful identity.

The façade is a collection of unitized façade panels based on the structural grid and consisting of terra cotta fins, flat panels, zinc and glass infill. The relationship between opaque (terra cotta) and transparent (glass) wall is balanced for environmental and natural light control. The varying vertical fin depths and window sizes responds to solar orientation and internal program requirements. The result is a responsive façade that reduces solar heat gain and glare, while also providing occupants access to an abundance of natural light and expansive views of the East River and city. By facilitating access to natural light and city views throughout the facility, the façade and massing design support MSK’s overarching commitment to provide a welcoming, healing environment that mitigates stress.

Given its river-adjacent location, the facility has been uniquely designed to survive the FEMA regulated 500-year flood event. To support this, all building systems have been designed to meet the need for resiliency such as floodgates at every vulnerable entrance, above flood elevation mechanical equipment, an energy “co-generation” plant on the roof, and a 25,000-gallon basement-level fuel tank that is protected by a submarine-style entrance and exit. In addition to enabling the building to remain open should a natural disaster scenario arise; these resiliency strategies reduce energy consumption and enable the building to operate at optimal efficiency.