Created to house the prevention, treatment, and research for cancer, Cotton-O'Neil Cancer Center is truly state of the art, with the only PET/CT scanner in a 13-county region of Kansas and the second Trilogy Image-Guided Radiotherapy linear accelerator within the state.
From education to diagnostics to treatment, and from staff to patients to visitors, a holistic approach has been taken and improved with the latest technology to create a single place that the community can use to increase citizen health and awareness.
Special Design Features
The layout of the center's floorplan, which clearly defines the three main public elements (entry/lobby, medical diagnostics, and medical oncology treatment), avoids the typical hospital maze of departments. The lobby - a tall, naturally lit space off the main corridor - extends the length of the building. The corridor, with a taller ceiling, separates the diagnostics side of the building from the treatment side, with both areas taking up roughly half the floor space.
A fiber-optic lit dome above the linear accelerator mimics a summer night's sky in Kansas, with the power system and fiber optics allowing the stars to twinkle and even incorporate the occasional shooting star.
Design/Construction Challenge
The linear accelerator sits in a vault made with 15,000 tons of concrete and has a shielded door weighing approximately 5,000 pounds, separating it from the rest of the building. The vault required specially engineered concrete forms, as well as a coordinate, continuous concrete pour schedule, to ensure there were no joints throughout the concrete.
