Yawkey Center @ Dana Farber | 450 Brookline Ave | Longwood Medical Area

Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

10/31:

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Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

^^ Somehow, I missed your latest batch of pix, KZ. I really dig the second to last one.

The steel is up to street-level. This is gonna rise pretty quick.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

This is as close as I got to Longwood or the MFA this time around. I'll give the area proper attention in a week or two.

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Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

From my mobile, an hour ago:

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Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

Steeling their courage

Ironworkers at Dana-Farber resume a beloved ritual, providing moments of joy for young cancer patients
By Michael Levenson
Globe Staff / February 21, 2009

Eighteen-month-old Kristen Hoenshell has a rare and aggressive form of cancer. What began as a tumor behind her eye has led to surgery and 38 weeks of weekly visits to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she receives powerful doses of chemotherapy that leave her weak and occasionally sick.

Yesterday, when she showed up for another round of treatment, she was greeted by something special. As her cousin Megan Souza pointed out the window of a third-floor walkway, ironworkers perched on the sixth floor of a partially constructed building nearby hoisted a massive I-beam into place. It was emblazoned, in bright pink spray paint, with Kristen's name.

"Look out the window," Souza said, as she held Kristen in her arms. "There's your name up there. There's your name, Kristen." The girl, bald from her treatments, smiled shyly.

It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber: Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care.

The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores of children receiving treatment at the clinic - Lia, Alex, and Sam; Taylor, Izzy, and Danny. For the young cancer patients, who press their noses to the glass to watch new names added every day, the steel and spray-paint tribute has given them a few moments of joy and a towering symbol of hope.

"It's fabulous," said Kristen's mother, Elizabeth, as she held her daughter and marveled at the rainbow of names. "It's just a simple little act that means so much."

Most days, the walkway fills up like the passageway of an aquarium, packed with children gazing through the glass. When a new name goes up on the building, the children cheer and clap. Yesterday, Juclaubern Palmer Osias, a 16-year-old from Holbrook who was diagnosed with cancer last year, saw his name immortalized in green paint on a beam on the seventh floor.

"It's your name," he said. "It makes you feel important."

It's given a sense of satisfaction to the ironworkers, too.

"Everybody saw the kids smiling," said Mike Walsh, the foreman for the ironworkers, from Local 7, whose wife, Sheila, is a nurse at Dana-Farber. "And that's what you want to do, is keep them smiling, especially if they're going for treatment in there."

The ironworkers made a similar tribute in 1996, when they painted the names of young cancer patients on beams they used to build the Smith Research Laboratories at Dana-Farber. For a time, a short film about the project was shown in movie theaters to raise money for the Jimmy Fund.

This time, the ironworkers knew they wanted to honor the children again. Over the last month, they have painted more than 100 names on the building and emblazoned part of their crane with a likeness of SpongeBob SquarePants. They have also painted a few special messages on the steel, like "Hi Hanna Get Well ASAP :)"

Yesterday, crawling on their stomachs in the bitter cold and whipping winds, the ironworkers looked down at the latest batch of names posted in the walkway window. Looking up at them were Kristen and her sisters, Cathryn, 5, and Hannah, 3, who have been accompanying her to chemotherapy. They pointed as the ironworkers painted the girls' names onto the side of a 4-ton I-beam and hoisted it on to the seventh floor.

"She'll always be a piece of this building, which is a good feeling to have," Elizabeth Hoenshell said, holding Kristen. "They don't have to do this, the guys. They could just do their job and do a good job at it and give us a building that we can get treatment at, but they go the extra step and that's huge."

One day, years from now, Hoenshell said, she hopes to take Kristen back to the clinic, and show her where her name is inscribed. "I'm going to stand her right here at this pedestal and say, 'Look right up,' and 'That was you,' " she said. "Maybe I'll take her over there for a little walk. She can step on her name," she said, laughing.

There's also a video at the link
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

from 111 Huntington
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from Mt aburn
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Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

Nice shots.

I have a meeting about the fit-out tomorrow. Should be loads of fun.

I'm gonna try and get up in the steel soon. If I do, you'll see the pix.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

I noticed yesterday that the first hints of exterior cladding (terra cotta and glass) are being installed on the fifth floor facade, and the back of the building that faces the Smith Building.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

looks just like the renderings! today another drive by!
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Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

Thanks Dot, not many updates on this one.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

ur welcome just happen to be driving by and could'nt believe how much skin was on already!
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

I'm still trying to get up into the steel of the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care (official name), but I've been busy with the commissioning of DFCI's new satellite clinic at South Shore Hospital.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

I had totally forgotten about this building. I think it's turning out quite well and very close to the original rendering.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

Van --

Since you're in NYC, you may want to check out the new Sloan-Kettering research tower. SOM designed it in collaboration with Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, the lead firm on the Yawkey project. The grammar and materials palate are similar, though the Sloan-Kettering building is well over twice the square-footage of the DFCI project.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

The terra cotta on the blank section looks good, too bad the architects of 39 Province didn't use something similiar instead of the black.
 
Re: Dana Farber Cancer Care Center

I think I'd prefer the black. That's a great building though.
 

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