Aug 25, 2025 _ news

New Cancer Center opens in New Mexico

CHRISTUS St. Vincent recently held an open house to celebrate the opening of its new Regional Cancer Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The new, 80,000 sf facility will allow CHRISTUS St. Vincent to increase the number of cancer patients they treat daily by 50%.

The new center is “designed entirely around the patient experience, ensuring patients receive seamless, fully integrated care in one location,” said CHRISTUS St. Vincent President and CEO, Lillian Montoya at the event. “A patient’s racial and socio-economic status affects both the probability they will receive a cancer diagnosis and whether they will have consistent access to the level of care necessary for a positive outcome,” says Angela Mazzi, a member of GBBN’s design team who worked on the project. “With a catchment area that includes Santa Fe and rural areas in northern New Mexico, the design considered a wide variety of patient needs to eliminate barriers to care.” 

The new building, which connects to CHRISTUS St. Vincent’s existing, adjacent hospital via a new pedestrian bridge, not only makes cancer care more accessible to more residents in the region, it does so in a bright, uplifting atmosphere full of local art and views to Santa Fe’s high desert landscape. The new building expands access to treatment for breast, lung, and gastrointestinal cancers; a wide range of diagnostic, surgical, and radiological services; and holistic services including physical therapy, acupuncture, social work, herbal medicine, and mindfulness training.

 

The design of the building formed around the idea of a central artery, the paseo del curando (healing walk) that connects the two halves of the building. This central passageway acts as a connection point for patients, families, providers, education, views, moments of respite, art, and spaces for working or conversing. The new center also aligns with its high-desert location. An earth-toned terracotta cladding system incorporates two different sawtooth panels arranged to create a sense of movement as the sun travels across the sky.

“We want to decrease and limit [patient] anxiety,” said Montoya. “They’re coming in here feeling vulnerable. But every corner you turn, you’re going to see beauty, beautiful sunlight, beautiful skies, …but also art.”

Read more about this project in The Albuquerque Journal and The Santa Fe New Mexican

Read our project case study here.

Read more about our approach to designing for cancer care here, here, and here.

See more of our healthcare work here.