The 57,000-square-foot CARTI Surgery Center is Arkansas’s first dedicated ambulatory cancer surgery center, designed to elevate cancer care through innovation and compassion. Featuring six operating rooms, extended recovery suites, and hospitality-inspired interiors, the facility centralizes services once scattered across multiple sites. Immersed in natural light and nestled into a steep hillside, the center offers patients a healing environment with advanced surgical care, improving both efficiency and the overall treatment experience.
Project Statement
CARTI Surgery Center – A Sanctuary for Healing
Purposely conceived to embody calm and clarity, the CARTI Surgery Center in Little Rock, Arkansas offers a uniquely tranquil environment for world-class oncological care where stress and anxiety are intentionally reduced through thoughtful architecture and interior detailing. The client’s vision was clear: to offer cutting-edge care in a space that feels more like a boutique hotel than a surgical facility. From the moment patients and their families arrive, they are immersed in an atmosphere of comfort and dignity, beginning with a double-height, light-filled lobby featuring warm wood tones, plush seating, and a bespoke fireplace—a space that invites peace over clinical sterility and a theme that is continued throughout the building.
The facility reimagines the outpatient surgical experience with an environment designed as much for emotional well-being as it is for medical excellence. As Arkansas’s first dedicated cancer surgery facility, this 57,000-square-foot building redefines what healthcare design can be—an elegant fusion of advanced treatment capabilities and a hospitality-driven patient experience.
Natural light is a central architectural element. Expansive floor-to-ceiling glazing in the private extended recovery suites offers uninterrupted views of the surrounding landscape, grounding the healing process in nature. High clerestory and transom windows introduce daylight into key clinical zones—pre- and post-operative areas as well as post-anesthesia recovery—fostering a connection to the outside world while maintaining privacy through carefully orchestrated spatial separations and soft screening elements. Interior circulation routes and gathering spaces are bathed in daylight, inviting moments of rest, reflection, and rejuvenation. Even traditionally back-of-house spaces benefit from access to natural light, reflecting the project's core belief: every detail contributes to healing.
Functionality is expertly balanced with aesthetic grace. The building houses six operating rooms, two procedure rooms, 15 pre-op bays, 12 PACU units, and eight extended recovery suites—all organized to optimize flow, privacy, and future growth. A centralized sterile processing unit and on-site pharmacy ensure seamless operation, while adjacent shell space allows for long-term adaptability.
Architecturally, the facility’s low-slung profile establishes a strong visual and spatial relationship with the main CARTI Cancer Center across the street, knitting the campus together through both alignment and material continuity. Expansive glazing along the eastern corridor captures views of the Little Rock skyline, while the northern façade offers a panoramic perspective of the rolling Arkansas landscape. Beyond the walls, the architecture extends its therapeutic mission into the landscape where a large, accessible healing garden provides a retreat for patients, families, and staff.
More than a facility, the CARTI Surgery Center is a benchmark in cancer care architecture—a place where advanced medicine meets thoughtful design, and where every space supports the journey to healing through light, material, and human-centered intent.
