Title: CARTI Cancer Center
Location of Proejct: Little Rock, Arkansas
Project Completion Date: November 2015
Firm Name: Perkins and Will

Short Description: Our architecture firm provided architecture, operational planning, interior design, landscape architecture, and branded signage/wayfinding design for the new CARTI Cancer Center, in Little Rock, Arkansas. CARTI’s program of comprehensive oncology care called for a fully integrated design in a single 176,000-square-foot facility, located atop a heavily wooded ridge with long views to the mountains beyond. Every aspect of the building is designed to center the patient’s experience in the flow of care from first visit to ongoing treatment. The features of the natural surroundings translate architecturally into easily navigated, soothing, motivational environments for caregivers, family, and patients alike.

Architect's Statement: During the exploratory phase of the project, the client expressed the need for a facility that would provide its patients with a warm, comforting, and inviting atmosphere. Our team was further challenged to integrate the functional building design with a new branded experience. We responded with a design that focuses this integrated experience on strategic patterning and destination “story features,” which double as functional elements that soothe, comfort, educate, and assist the patient in every way. The design’s branded functional elements capitalize on opportunities to inspire and motivate patients, encourage healing, and increase productivity. These outcomes lead to organizational benefits such as attracting and retaining top talent.

There were a number of site-related challenges. The first was that the site was bisected into two parcels by an existing roadway. We explored several ideas for bridging the roadway with surface parking on the northern parcel. Instead we chose to build the facility and structured parking on the southern parcel only, leaving the northern parcel natural and undisturbed, which offered the added benefit of preserving the expansive views of the surrounding mountains. This decision allowed us to meet the program and parking requirements with minimal site disturbance.

Minimal disturbance also informed our decision not to remove the large boulders on the site. We chose instead to integrate them into the landscape design as elements that would enhance the user’s connection to the natural surroundings. In addition to the views across the undisturbed northern parcel, a healing garden, green roof, and entry landscape combine to provide an immersive experience. By featuring native plants and stone harvested on-site, the design embraces the Little Rock landscape. A looped path system surrounds the healing garden to promote meditation and recovery for patients, visitors, and staff. The therapeutic benefits of connection to the natural surroundings ultimately informed our design choices throughout the project, from site disturbance and landscape design to building access, orientation of waiting rooms, materials, and facades.

The facility considers the flow of care from initial visit to regular visits by providing easy access for patients and their care partners. The main entrance is on the first floor and opens into the program of “first time” functions. The entrance for multivisit patients is accessed from the parking deck through a convenient walkway to the second floor, where activities are progressively located for the shortest, most convenient travel. The exterior of the Center takes inspiration from solar orientation and sustainable design strategies while paying homage to the local landscape through uses of locally sourced stone and other building materials. The north side of the building, where all waiting areas are situated, features floor-to-ceiling glass walls, establishing a dramatic and iconic presence when viewed from the main roadway below. This orientation of the waiting areas provides intuitive wayfinding for patients and takes advantage of daylighting and the beautiful views of nature. The east and west façades are solid limestone panels. Punched openings in the panels are suggestive of carving into a hard shell and gradually cutting through the rock, metal, and glass to the soft nurturing interior.

Inside, the branded experience is grounded in a modern interpretation of the former “CARTI star,” serving both to represent the organization’s comprehensive services and guide the design of emotive brand moments throughout the facility. The new identity is a crest of four interlocking Cs, symbolizing CARTI’s four organizational values—Excellence, Compassionate Care, Patient Orientation, Collegial Commitment—and its family-like support system. The crest communicates the importance of joining resources, merging entities, and collaboration among specialties in CARTI’s patient-centered care.

These brand values and practices are then communicated throughout the space in patient testimonials and caregivers’ expressions of gratitude, commitment, and compassion. By promoting intangible connections among patients, staff, physicians, and visitors, the layering of the brand throughout the environment supports the program and architecture of the design.