Design review board continues final review of Mount Sinai cancer center, asks for more detail on terraces and landscape

The Design Review Board on Sept. 6 continued formal review of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s proposed five‑story cancer center, sending the project back to the applicant for more detailed plans and a revised landscape/terrace package. Board members praised the overall design but said they wanted clearer information about rooftop terraces, green‑roof options and how the west‑side “healing garden” will meet safety, stormwater and maintenance needs.

The project, sited on the western portion of Mount Sinai’s Miami Beach campus at 4300 Alton Road, was presented by Mount Sinai and the project team from Canon Design and landscape firm GSLA. Gino Santorio, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center, told the board the facility will consolidate comprehensive oncology services — infusion, diagnostics, rehab and clinical research — and will include public education space and “complimentary therapies” aimed at improving patient experience.

Architect Arjun Bhatt described a sculptural white precast building wrapped by ribbon‑like spandrels that vary in depth to control solar exposure, and a multi‑part healing garden at the water side with a donor garden, meditative spaces and a plaza garden visible from interior lobbies. Landscape architect Ken Gardner outlined layered plantings and donor garden areas intended to shade and frame the pedestrian waterfront path.

Board members said the scheme was promising and that the building’s visibility from the causeway is appropriate, but raised repeated concerns: how the large, stepped roof terraces will be used and maintained; whether some terraces should be non‑occupiable green roofs rather than pedestrian spaces; how drainage for the sculptural roof and porte‑cochère would be handled; and how the waterfront retaining wall, trees and planting pockets will screen a roughly 6‑ to 10‑foot grade difference between the building and the fire access lane behind it.

“Those rooftop terraces are large horizontal planes — we need to know whether they’re occupiable, how they’re maintained, and what the safety and infection‑control implications are for patients,” said a board member. “We’d also like to see studies that show how planting will soften the large retaining wall along the waterfront.”

OutFront Media, Canon Design and Mount Sinai agreed to return with more detailed terrace sections, planting drawings that show the transition between the raised building and the water level, and more information on rooftop materials and drainage. The board voted to continue the application to its Oct. 4 meeting so members could review the additional documentation.

Why it matters: Mount Sinai’s cancer center is the largest, most visible healthcare project before the board and will set the design tone for a portion of the Bayfront campus. The board’s requests for more detail on terraces and landscape reflect both patient‑safety concerns and typical public expectations about waterfront access, stormwater management and the visual relationship between a new building and the causeway.

What’s next: Mount Sinai and Canon Design will provide additional drawings showing terrace sections, mechanical equipment locations, façade details for the deep spandrels, and a more developed planting plan clarifying how the waterfront wall will be softened and how terraces will be made safe and maintainable. The board will take the item up again Oct. 4.