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Shovels abound as Yawkey Center officially breaks ground
Healthcare champion Sen. Ted Kennedy spoke at the Yawkey Center groundbreaking.
Government officials, Boston Red Sox legends, and Dana-Farber leaders gathered in June to formally launch construction of Dana-Farber's Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, a state-of-the-art outpatient care and clinical research facility.
The Yawkey Center, slated to open in 2011 on the main Dana-Farber campus, will house many of the Institute's adult clinical services, as well as translational research space and patient and family services. The 275,000 square-foot building will include 100 exam rooms and 150 infusion beds for chemotherapy treatments. Designed as an environmentally friendly "green" building, it will feature a landscaped roof, efficient heating and cooling systems, and as much natural light as possible. It is named in honor of the Yawkey Foundation's $30 million gift to Dana-Farber's ongoing Mission Possible capital campaign.
"The need for expert cancer care is growing in our region and nationally because our society is aging, treatments are becoming more effective and intensive, and, fortunately, people with cancer are surviving longer," Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz Jr., MD, said during the groundbreaking ceremonies. "The Yawkey Center is the centerpiece of Dana-Farber's response to this need for the best 21st century cancer care and for new modes of clinical research designed to bring better treatments to patients more quickly and safely."
