Architect: SOM
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Completion Date: May 2023
The Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), opened its doors to patients on the Emory University Hospital campus in May 2023. The project joins a veritable building boom in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, which has seen a spate of significant projects by the likes of John Portman & Associates (now Portman Architects) and Duda|Paine Architects.
For SOM and the client, the primary consideration for the 17-story project was to establish a holistic approach to patient care, which informed both the space planning and the exterior. It houses a wide range of care facilities, including oncology facilities, infusion treatment, inpatient beds, and outpatient clinics. A total of 160 collaborators guided SOM’s design approach to the project’s wide-ranging functions. The overall facade geometry, organized in two-story increments, is intended to provide the tower with an approachable scale in relation to the surrounding Peachtree Street area.
“The largest facades are east and west facing, which was necessary for programmatic reasons, but if not designed well would have challenging solar exposures,” SOM health practice leader Anthony Treu told AN. “Upon concluding our studies, we found that a serrated facade geometry would work to both reduce solar gain while also minimizing glare in the patient rooms. On the north and south tower volume, we implemented a fly-by curtain wall system to complement the expression of the two-story care communities, each centered on a specific type of cancer, and further help to minimize glare.”
