Part of the healing process is mental, and Advocate Radiation Oncology aims to put people at ease both physically and mentally. It’s a goal that extends to the look and feel of its offices.
“When you walk into an Advocate office, even if you don’t see our logo, I’d like to think somebody could tell you it’s an Advocate office. All of our offices have similar tones, similar wood, similar colors, and I think that’s important,” says Dr. Arie Dosoretz, a managing partner of Advocate with his father and sister, Drs. Daniel Dosoretz and Amy Fox, and other local physicians.
Seeing its health care business as a local partner in the fight against cancer, Southwest Florida-based Advocate targets consistent results and state-of-the-art radiation treatment, whether patients visit its offices in Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples, Port Charlotte or on the east coast, Dosoretz said. “When we’re thinking about our building, we are looking at it from two points of view. First and foremost, the top priority is the patient, by far. And, then, of course, the employees and the staff,” he says. “We’re always thinking about the function and thinking about the aesthetics—kind of combined.”
The interior of a long-shuttered restaurant in Naples was gutted to create Advocate’s sixth office, which opened in December. A large skylight, the centerpiece of the office, was added to brighten the 5,700-square-foot space. The natural light offers therapeutic benefits, aiding the recovery process for patients, Dosoretz said. The goal is to create a space that is inviting and inspirational.
“Medical offices, especially when you start saying ‘modern, modern, modern,’ can feel sterile and very cold. That’s not what we want,” he says. “I’ve heard it from so many patients at least once a week and sometimes many times a week. Patients will say to me, ‘This place feels so comfortable.’”
Fort Myers-based Forum Construction and Consulting Inc. and Indigo Architecture were the general contractor and architect for the Naples project. Richard Andisco of Forum Construction used wallpaper of an abstract painting by Erin Kaya on one windowless wall to create an artistic display. “You have one wall that’s like a big piece of art,” Andisco says. “That is something that is unique for the Naples office.”
Vertical alternative wood louvers bring warmth and texture into an office space punctuated with light wood, glass, blues and golds.
“The way we do it from the space standpoint, we have a modern, sort of coastal feel,” Dosoretz says. “It’s warm in the sense that there are some tones in the color that are warm, and the wood also makes things warm. I’m not an architect. I’m not a designer. So, for me, when I walk through a space it’s, ‘How do I feel?’”
The space is designed to give people a sense of hope and a sense that they are in the right place to heal and improve, Dosoretz said. “Part of what we try to offer at Advocate is this feeling and this sense that we’re going to shepherd you through this process and we’re going to help you get to the other side and feel better. And, I think, the space should reflect that.”
