The site was a tight one, being a parking lot at the corner of the huge Cedar-Sinai Medical Center lot in Los Angeles.  One of the requirements was the incorporation of the existing radiation therapy facilities in a subterranean level of the hospital, since it would be costly and inefficient to recreate them; another was that the building had to have a low profile, rising no higher than the plinth of the larger complex.  As a result, the 52 000 sq.ft. building is largely underground, composed of 22 000 sq.ft. of new construction and 30 000 sq.ft of renovated existing space.  The architects felt that the main design effort should be concentrated on the section of the building, to try to bring as much natural light into the facility as possible. 

The center is organized around two large multi-storey spaces.  First is the chemotherapy atrium, around which are arranged 19 private treatment rooms.  Each room has a bed, a pull-out toilet, a sink and a curtain, so that patients can vary the degree of privacy.  They can choose to lie down, sit up, or even walk around with their IV poles. The second space is the waiting area dominated by a huge 25-foot play structure to amuse pediatric patients.  Though it cannot really be climbed, the base is a theatre-like space for children (and adults) to watch television together.  The diagnostic facilities and doctors’ offices are arranged in a ring corridor just off the waiting room. 

The architecture of the Comprehensive Cancer Center is tamer than Morphosis’ other work, but is nevertheless striking, a desirable result for Dr. Salick.  He hired the firm to design the facility because he wanted something “non-traditional but not threatening” and “dramatic but warm”.   Thom Mayne of Morphosis rejected the idea that cancer treatment centers should be designed to mimic the domestic environment, choosing to acknowledge the frightening things that accompany the disease through design. 

In a post-occupancy evaluation, patients and staff commented on the toughness of the architecture, but liked that it did not resemble the typical antiseptic hospital.  George Rand, who conducted the evaluation, saw some troubling problems in the design: patients waiting for examinations would have to sit in their skimpy hospital gowns in the same waiting room as fully clothed patients and their families, an embarrassing situation for both groups; the openness of the treatment rooms exposed the patients to annoying noises, like ringing phones (which are often not answered in hospitals, adding to the aggravation).