Gamma Knife Suite

Dattner Architects Nyc Gamma Knife Studio HERO1

Gamma Knife Suite

This highly-specialized clinical care space accommodates a new Gamma Knife imaging vault–one of only a handful operating in New York. Located within the Stitch Center Radiation Oncology Department at Weill Cornell Medical Center, this new facility provides advanced treatment for brain cancer treatment.

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Space Conversion

Operating within the Therapeutic Cancer Center, the Article-28 project provides a new home for advanced gamma ray oncology treatment. The Gamma Knife procedure space converted an existing LINAC to a Gamma Knife vault, added a new lead door, an extensive network of cameras for both control of the gamma procedure and security, a mask-building oven, and a variety of control devices. The space shares a new waiting room and patient wardrobes within the larger Stitch Center Radiation Oncology facility.

Outside of the vault, the renovation provides a new control room, reception and work room along with updated soil and clean rooms. One pre-post-procedure room is added while the two existing are updated, each room provided with guest seating. Though primarily an ambulatory procedure, the suite adds an acoustically rated operable partition between two of the rooms to create a larger room when needed for patients arriving by stretcher. Patients enter the suite through portals that frame and define this modernized and upgraded area of specialized clinical services.

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Technical Delivery

The Gamma Knife weighs 20 tons, requiring extensive structural reinforcements along the delivery path. Outside the hospital, a large crane equipped with counterweights necessary to deliver the Gamma Knife had to be carefully staged to avoid the underground parking facility and interruptions to the ongoing adjacent hospital functions. In collaboration with the Construction Manager, JC Duggan, we developed a custom rigging solution to transport the Gamma Knife unit down a garden hatch, through an underground tunnel, and into the hospital corridor. This technically demanding project was especially rewarding, as the technology significantly reduces treatment times to minutes.