31-Story UES Cancer Center Planned By Memorial Sloan Kettering

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The medical tower boom on the Upper East Side will continue with a new 31-story pavilion planned by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the organization announced Tuesday.

The 200-bed cancer care building will rise near the corner of York Avenue and East 66th Street, within MSK's main campus. The exact site was not specified, and a spokesperson did not say whether any demolitions would be needed to make way for the building.

With 28 operating and procedure suites, the tower will feature "advanced technology" like robotics and other digital infrastructure that could not fit in MSK's existing buildings, according to a news release. It will be completed around 2030, connecting via a bridge to MSK's main hospital building at 1275 York Ave.

In expanding its footprint, MSK says it is responding to projections by the Centers for Disease Control that cancer cases will rise by nearly 50 percent in the U.S. by 2050, due to population growth and aging.

The medical center identified that need as far back as 2001, when it presented a long-term plan to the city while seeking approval for its 23-story Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center, which opened in 2009 on East 68th Street between First and York avenues.

“As a world-renowned cancer research, education, and care center, MSK has been a key player in New York’s reputation as a center for innovation, recruiting some of the most talented clinicians and scientists to live, learn, and work here,” said Craig Thompson, the CEO of MSK, in a statement.

"The new Pavilion is a critical component in ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to the best doctors and scientists in the world well into the future."

A solicitation for an architect to design the new building has not yet been sent out, as the project remains in the early design phase. The organization did specify that the pavilion will be LEED-certified as environmentally friendly.

Memorial Sloan Kettering's most recent expansion was the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care, a distinctive 25-story facility completed in 2020, facing the East River between East 73rd and 74th streets.

Similar projects being planned on the Upper East Side include a 30-story medical tower to be built on First Avenue by the Hospital for Special Surgery; another building by HSS that will soar over the FDR Drive; the New York Blood Center's contested research tower on East 67th Street; and Weill Cornell's dormitory building on York Avenue.