CHGJ James Pulsipher Regional Cancer Center and Monument View Medical Plaza
Building the Jewel of the Grand Junction Campus
Origin & Vision
The Third Phase of a Long Vision
This 125,000-square-foot, four-floor cancer center and medical office building represents the third phase of a campus-wide master-planning effort for the Community Hospital of Grand Junction. The main hospital and the adjacent Monument View Medical Plaza—completed in 2016 and 2014, respectively—were designed to connect place and topography, and this new building gave the design team a rare opportunity to return to that vision and build on it once more.
Name
CHGJ James Pulsipher Regional Cancer Center and Monument View Medical Plaza
Location
Grand Junction, Colorado
Size
125,000
Because the client set out to create a Center of Excellence in cancer care, it was equally essential to give the new building its own distinct identity on campus, one that would elevate cancer care for the entire region while still feeling like part of the same family of buildings. The addition is connected to the main hospital at all four floors, easing passage for staff, and increases the hospital's bed capacity from 60 to 96 through a new 24-bed medical-surgical unit on the fourth floor.
An Intrinsic Connection to Place
Drawing From the Book Cliffs and the Grand Valley
The site sits at the western edge of Grand Junction, in the Grand Valley, with the Grand Mesa, the Colorado National Monument, the Colorado River, and the Book Cliffs all shaping the surrounding landscape. These are the same landforms that inspired the original hospital design, and the new medical office building picks up that language in a fresh way, giving its own programs a distinct identity while still speaking fluently to what came before. Layered, curvilinear forms echo the banding visible in the Monument, meandering through the building and creating a continuous sense of connection between the built environment and the land it sits on.
The resulting building feels both humble and elevated at once, drawing on the Colorado ecosystem to create a lasting community resource that feels entirely at home in its environment: Coloradan through and through, a little rough around the edges but humble at its heart.
A Community Beacon
An Atrium That Announces Arrival
The client wanted a dedicated entrance with a prominent, dramatic lobby to welcome patients into the cancer center, and the design team responded with a three-story atrium washed in daylight, its form inspired by the striking topography of the region. Robust steel framing at the curtain walls, paired with soft underlying textures and finishes, welcomes guests with genuine Western hospitality. Iridescent glazing and a specialized lighting system let the atrium serve as a literal beacon for the community, one that can shift color to honor occasions like Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
A dedicated cafe and dining space anchors the ground floor. The main hospital already had a cafeteria, but leadership prioritized a separate space with more casual fare, so that patients, staff, and visitors to the cancer center could refuel, relax, and socialize without needing to travel into the main building.
A Healing Environment
Care From Diagnosis Through Survivorship
Services within the cancer center are organized to walk with patients from the moment of diagnosis through treatment, recovery, and survivorship. Beyond the 16,000-square-foot radiation oncology suite—equipped with HDR and two linear accelerators—and the 19,000-square-foot medical oncology suite with 24 infusion bays, the program includes integrative therapies like massage and acupuncture, a rehabilitation gym, education and community space, and a retail shop for prosthetics and wigs.
The infusion spaces themselves are light and airy, giving patients receiving treatment the choice to engage with the surrounding bays or dial up their privacy, depending on what a given day calls for. That same attention to comfort and empathy extends to staff spaces, which feature expansive outdoor views and a landscaped courtyard, a recognition that the people delivering care need restorative space too.
Design for Integration
Bridging Old and New, Safely
Building a new cancer center directly onto an operating hospital meant the design language had to translate seamlessly between existing and new construction, even as the team worked to give the addition its own identity. The two buildings connect directly, with a large connection point on the first floor and smaller ones on the upper floors. Because oncology patients are often immunocompromised, infection control was a critical consideration on both sides of that connection. The team worked closely with an infection preventionist to understand pressure relationships between the existing and new structures, adjusting building conditioning throughout to protect patient safety.
A Light Touch
Engineering Comfort Into Every Detail
Having designed the original master plan and its earlier buildings, the team was able to carry lessons learned directly into this project. Daylighting studies also shaped the building down to the individual infusion bays: the team used specialized tools to study light transmittance and sun-shading depths throughout, ensuring the right levels of natural light everywhere, especially in light-sensitive spaces like the bays at the rear of the building. A rooftop garden, positioned over the infusion space and accessible from within it, was designed to the specifications needed to bring it to life in the future, although it hasn't been built out yet. Elsewhere, departments carry built-in shell space, so the campus that grew once before can grow again without disrupting the whole.
