Brookline Avenue in Longwood Medical Area would get its first pedestrian bridge in plans for new Dana-Farber cancer hospital

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute this week filed a "institutional master plan" for its proposed 14-story hospital where the Joslin Diabetes Center now sits. The 10-year development plan does not have detailed renderings of the new hospital - to be built as part of a new long-term agreement with Beth Israel Medical Center - but it does call for construction of new pedestrian bridges, including one that would span Brookline Avenue from the new building to Dana-Farber's current facilities.

The bridge, which would be accompanied by a 14-foot-wide tunnel under Brookline Avenue, is a must, because otherwise ill patients being treated at one building would have to be transported by ambulance across the street, Dana-Farber says.

As part of the plan, the Joslin Center will be moved to existing Beth Israel buildings on the other side of Brookline Avenue.

Dana-Farber says its architects will put serious thought into a bridge that would be more than just a simple walkway:

The design intent for the above-grade Brookline Avenue connector is for a light, "landmark" architectural element. Details will be developed and reviewed as a part of the IMP Project's Large Project Review process. However, preliminary studies confirm feasible options for multiple single-span structural systems supported from the IMP Project and Dana and Mayer buildings. It will not require structural appurtenances within the public right-of-way.

The bridge - and the building itself - will be further detailed in a separate "project notification form" Dana-Farber will file.

In this week's filing, Dana-Farber further explained the need for a pedestrian bridge:

A network of patient-accessible corridors at the third-floor level is the backbone of patient care across the multi-building Dana-Farber Main Campus. These corridors currently provide access to functions across the Dana-Farber Main Campus as well as access to the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital campuses. Extension of this third-floor connector system to the IMP [Institutional Master Plan] Project and to the BIDMC West Campus and its services is logical and straightforward. The proposed above-grade Brookline Avenue crossing aligns with an existing interior corridor system; is located at the shortest distance between the two campuses; and is at an elevation above grade that neither obscures nor impedes pedestrian movement, vehicular movement, or long-range view corridors in the City. Connections from the Yawkey Building to the BIDMC West Campus through the Rosenberg Building were studied and are infeasible due to the program layout within the Rosenberg Building. ...

The design team studied alternate below-grade pathways which were deemed infeasible as described above. In addition, redirection from the existing third-floor patient movement paths to below-grade connections would necessitate travel through multiple new elevators and along multiple non-linear pathways. In clinical experience,such routing would increase patient stress, detract from patient care, necessitate escorts with increased time and cost, and create otherwise unnecessary ambulance trips across Brookline Avenue for the most ill patients incapable of taking the non-linear route. The inability to build a bridge connecting the Dana-Farber Main Campus to the IMP Project will require cancer patients who require inpatient hospitalization to be transported by ambulance on a daily basis. This arrangement is suboptimal for patient care, separates patients from their families and will add substantial cost to the care of the patients.

The cancer center adds that in addition to the bridge, it wants to build a 14-foot-wide tunnel under Brookline Avenue to connect the two sides of its campus. It says it would bore the tunnel rather than excavating Brookline Avenue to minimize disruption on one of the Longwood Medical Area's two main streets.

A separate pedestrian bridge would connect the building from its rear to Beth Israel buildings along Pilgrim Road.

When completed, the new building will have 300 in-patient beds for cancer patients - up from the 30 Dana-Farber now has at Brigham and Women's Hospital - plus 20 "observation" beds, along with clinical space. Beth Israel will use the first three floors of the building, which is also planned to have 250 parking spaces.

1 Joslin Pl. filings.