When Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Miami) earned its National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation in 2019, it was a milestone that underscored the institution’s research ambitions and highlighted the opportunity to strengthen collaboration across a rapidly expanding cancer center.
“We had researchers working together who were scattered in different buildings,” says Dr. Stephen Nimer, director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System and the Miller School of Medicine. “Where there was open space, we would try to put people studying the immunology of cancer, for example, next to each other. But there were space constraints.”
The solution: a new 12-story flagship building on the main campus designed to more than double research capacity and consolidate top specialists under one roof. Named after a prominent donor, the Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building, which opened in Miami in October 2025, also takes on a more ambitious charge: closing the gap between cancer research and patient care. “The goal was bringing people together, and we’ve been very intentional in doing that in a way that we hope will synergize and accelerate cancer research,” Nimer says.
Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building
Global design firm HOK was selected as lead architect, laboratory and medical planner, and interior designer, with Southeast offices contributing to the project. From the outset, the team faced a core planning challenge in reconciling the spatial logic of research with that of clinical care.
“Research tends to work on an 11-foot (wide) lab module, while clinical hovers around a 30-foot grid,” says Karen Freeman, healthcare practice leader at HOK (Atlanta) and lead medical planner on the project. “For this building to house both, we selected the research grid, which allowed us to take advantage of some extra space that a purely clinical building might not have afforded.”
That decision yielded tangible dividends. The building’s 2-story clinic includes 15 standard 120-square-foot exam rooms on the third floor, but the research grid allowed the design team to expand the infusion center—positioning family seating directly adjacent to infusion bays along a perimeter curtain wall that draws in natural light. “Infusion is where our patients are spending their longest and most vulnerable hours, so we were very intentional about giving the spaces daylight and room for families close to the chair,” Freeman says. “That prioritization in the design really communicates value and affirms dignity for those patients.”
A building designed for human connection
Seven floors of labs are organized into research neighborhoods—some clustered by cancer type, others by shared scientific interest—with environments for wet bench research and open hubs for computational work. The building’s first and fourth floors serve as critical connectors between the clinical and research missions.
Specifically, the first floor functions as the “front door narrative,” says Chirag Mistry, director of science and technology at HOK (Atlanta) and principal in charge and senior program and lab planner.” Alongside a wig-fitting boutique, art therapy classrooms, and a prayer/Zen room, curated displays highlight research milestones and active clinical trials.
“When a patient walks into this building, we want them to immediately understand two things: that they are in a place of compassion, and that they are at the epicenter of discovery. It’s not abstract science behind closed doors; it’s visible and it’s happening for them,” Mistry says.
The fourth floor—what Mistry calls “the mixing floor”—functions as an open innovation environment with flexible conference rooms and classrooms designed to bring researchers and clinicians together while also hosting community workshops and cancer survivorship programs.
For Freeman, the project represents a culture shift in how research and care environments are conceived. “It was a balance between designing for the precision that’s needed to advance this groundbreaking medicine and designing with compassion, recognizing that the discovery that’s taking place on these upper floors and patient dignity are not competing priorities,” she says. “Scientific ambition and the human experience can be and should be integrated, and that’s what’s really special about this project.”
Robert McCune is senior editor of Healthcare Design magazine and can be reached at [email protected].
Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building project details
Location: Miami
Official Project Name: Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building
Project completion: October 2025
Owner: University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Total building area: 244,000 sq. ft.
Total construction cost: Not disclosed
Cost/sq. ft.: Not disclosed
Architect: HOK
Interior designer: HOK
General contractor: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Engineer: Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. (civil engineer), Affiliated Engineers, Inc. (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing)
Builder: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Art consultant: HOK
Medical equipment planner: HOK
Art/pictures: Picture Perfect, Larry Emerson
Carpet/flooring: Shaw, Interface, Patcraft, Mannington, Nora, Tarkett, Stonhard, Duraflex, Daltile, Crossvile, STP Tile, Terrazzo & Marble supply company
Ceiling/wall systems: Armstrong, Roulon, Dirtt (walls)
Fabric/textiles: Maharam, Designtex, Architex
Furniture—seating/casegoods: Haworth, Steelcase, Millerknoll, OFS, Geiger, Nucraft, Andreworld, Stylex
Handrails/wall guards: Improv wall protection, CS Construction Group
Surfaces—solid/other: Wilsonart, Corian
Wallcoverings: Korosel, Carnegie, FitzFelt
Project details are provided by the design team and not vetted by Healthcare Design.
