University Of Chicago Announces Initial Plans For Cancer Center In Hyde Park

The University of Chicago has announced initial details for a new medical development at 5646 S Drexel Avenue on their Hyde Park campus. The new building would be located on the northwest corner with E 57th Street and will be replacing a surface parking lot in the heart of the university’s medical district. The project’s developer University of Chicago Medicine will be taking their first round of information to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board seeking the necessary approval to begin design development for the property.

Site context plan of new cancer center via Google Maps

The new center will be a consolidated cancer center that will help streamline all of their cancer care and research into one place becoming the first freestanding clinical cancer center in the city. Initial details call for a 500,000-square-foot structure containing 128 beds solely for cancer treatment, allowing the existing medical facilities to focus and grow their organ transplant, trauma, and cardiology care departments among others as the hospital runs at capacity for most of the year.

Current view onto site of new cancer center via Google Maps

Also included in the building will be 100 exam rooms for expanded inpatient, outpatient, and preventative care services that will allow for more research opportunities on cancers that affect the surrounding area and whose findings could have national impacts. Hospital officials predicted the new facility would handle around 200,000 outpatient and 5,000 inpatient visits per year in an area that has long suffered from disinvestment in medicine with hospitals closing and the first trauma center in the south side since 1991 recently re-opening its doors in 2018.

View of the existing main building of UChicago Medicine via Cancer.gov

While the design is yet to be flushed out, the university has been looking for ways to expand the hospital and their connection to the south side, where residents are 29 percent more likely to receive a cancer diagnosis than those in other parts of the city according to the Chicago Tribune. The $633 million plan will go in front of the board for approval on commencing design by the end of the month and the hospital hopes to begin construction in 2023 with an expected 2026 opening date.

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