Precedent 4- Arizona Cancer Center

The Peter and Paula Fasseas Cancer Clinic
Location: Tucson, Arizona

Architect: Co Architects (Dennis McFadden

Principal in Charge: James Simeo

Overall square footage: 82,000 sq. ft.

Total Construction Cost: $21,435,000



Environmental Influences: The rugged natural beauty of Tucson, Arizona has driven this design. The science and art of healing have converged; medicine and technology are integrated with a healing environment closely linked to nature.

Physical Parameters:
Context: Initially founded in 1976 as a Division of the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine, the Arizona Cancer Center currently stands as Center of Excellence in the Arizona Health Sciences Center. It provides outpatient exam and infusion treatment services to patients in a convenient accessible facility. The cancer center is the first phase o a 17 acre site that will be developed in increments to house other services of the medical center.

Special Factors or Challenges: By providing access to gardens, trees, and mountain views, the design is deinstitutionalized and removed from an acute care hospital setting.

List of all spaces and design: “The healing gardens are an integral part of the new center and provide an atmosphere that’s conductive to an outstanding quality of life-a setting in which cancer patients can feel they have a great chance of being cured,” says Cancer Center Director David Alperts. The healing gardens replicate elements of the native landscape and are organized around a creek bed that runs through the site-a desert “wash” which supply the garden’s native trees, plants and flowers with water. All of the exam and infusion treatment spaces are provided with a window that looks out to the gardens. All elements of the building’s design relate to the natural landscape. Exterior and interior finishes are natural materials made from natural products, such as stone and wood. Trellises and covered entries provide shade. The color palate is neutral earth tones. Interior spaces are washed with soft, indirect light.




Summary: I love the way that Arizona Cancer Center shares some of the same goals as Spirit Gardens hopes to achieve; healing through nature and raising the quality of life of the patients staying there.