New cancer center in Cedar Rapids ahead of schedule

CEDAR RAPIDS – Steel beams, glass and bricks have taken shape faster than expected for Mercy Medical Center's new Hall-Perrine Cancer Center.

The project, noticeably visible from 10

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Street SE, is a few months ahead of schedule. Originally scheduled for completion in June, the building, next to the hospital's Hall Radiation Center, is now on schedule for occupancy in March, said Mercy CEO Tim Charles.

“It's remarkable,” he said, after a tour of the site on Wednesday, Aug. 24. “They've worked through the worst of the months.”

Groundbreaking for the $24.6 million project, at 701 10

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St. SE., began in April.

Charles noted that the cancer center will be the first new building in the city's forthcoming medical district.

Just blocks away, Physicians' Clinic of Iowa is constructing its 221,000 square foot medical pavilion, where St. Luke's Hospital is consolidating many of its cancer services.

PCI's $47 million medical mall complex is slated to open early in 2013.

Mercy's 85,000-square-foot cancer center was designed after consultation with numerous patients and former patients, Charles said.

“What you're seeing in front of you is the result of many, many conversations,” he said during the hard-hat tour.

The center will have three floors, with a fourth floor for mechanical equipment, said Dan Rectenwald, principal architect with Hammel, Green and Abrahamson of Minneapolis.

Exposed lights and concrete visible on the tour will evolve into a light-filled, two-story atrium that will lead to the elevators.

Rectenwald said the second floor is open for tenants or future expansion.

A patient and family resource center, family respite center, healing gardens and meditation space will be among the features on ground-level.

Rectenwald noted that the outdoor fountain that had been visible from 10

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Street will be replaced by a new fountain in the same area.

The third floor includes chemotherapy infusion rooms with natural lighting and views of outdoor green space, a retail pharmacy, lab and space for Oncology Associates.

An overhang at Oncology Associates' building at 525 10

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St. SE, has been removed to make room for construction.

“We're really pressed as tight as we can get,” said Bradd Brown, principal at OPN Architects.

That building will be demolished once the cancer center is completed to make way for green space, he said.

Rectenwald said the project is tracking towards LEED certification.

“It's designed with that in mind,” he said.