The Phillips Family Cancer Center Inspires Patient Comfort, Connection to Nature

The Southampton Hospital Association recently celebrated the completion of The Phillips Family Cancer Center, a 13,800-square-foot, two-story building in Southampton, New York.

The design of The Phillips Family Cancer Center is inspired by the property’s former history as a Southampton farmer’s potato barn. The design team imagined a light, airy space where patients can connect with nature as part of the healing process. Covered by a long, rectangular pitched roof, the exterior of the building’s top floor is sided with composite wood planks reminiscent of aged cedar, while the exterior of the lower level along the entry front is exposed-board form concrete.

The center’s radiation treatment area is located on the street level. A 22,000 pound leaded cantilevered concrete door opens the vault, which houses a linear accelerator inside prefabricated leaded concrete walls, with varying widths from 4-5 feet based upon the shielding plan design. The vault extends back into the hill behind the building.

Medical oncology is accessible on the second level with its entrance directly off the upper parking lot. The infusion area is bright and cheerful, and the cathedral ceiling features skylights above 12 individual stations with glass dividers depicting images of waving dune grasses. The two shared treatment spaces boast an expansive floor-to-ceiling view of trees. The west-side chemotherapy stations overlook the organic year-round garden planted on the hill above the linear accelerator.

At the opposite end of the second level is a multi-purpose area that functions as a light-filled conference room. It can quickly convert into a screening room for live Skype medical conferencing with Stony Brook University’s Cancer Center. Additionally, the sectional table and chairs easily collapse and roll into a closet, creating space for fitness classes and other wellness workshops.

The project team included EW Howell Construction Group, Blaze Makoid Architecture and Victor Famulari Architect.

Photos courtesy of Busch Studios.