Green building

Frauenshuh Cancer Center was designed to meet and surpass all energy-use code requirements. By exceeding the industry energy standard by 20 percent, Frauenshuh Cancer Center will save more than $88,000 a year in operating expenses. Energy consumption savings are achieved by using:

• energy-efficient windows
• energy-efficient lighting, including occupancy sensors (91 percent of regularly occupied spaces have individual controls) 
• advanced climate control system
• high-efficiency equipment, including computers and appliances

LEED certification recognizes a building is much more than an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly structure. It also needs to be a warm, inviting facility for people who use it daily – our patients and employees. Frauenshuh Cancer Center includes many innovative design elements to recharge and re-energize its people. Navigating inside and outside our center, you will find:

• a healing garden, including two acres of green space and 288 trees
• serene resting spots, including multiple lounge areas
• family rooms, chapel and meditation space
• access to a scenic walkway and boardwalk alongside Minnehaha Creek

The green roof at Frauenshuh Cancer Center, most visible from the first-floor lobby, provides a watertight barrier. Hardy, drought-tolerant plant species provide natural, enjoyable scenery. Several layers of protective materials, including a waterproof membrane, divert water away from the roof deck. Additional benefits of green roofs include:

• reduction in heating and cooling expenses
• reduction in storm-water runoff
• filtration of pollutants and carbon dioxide
• insulation of sound
• longer life span than standard roofs

Many raw materials used to build Frauenshuh Cancer Center were harvested and manufactured within a 500-mile radius. This supported local suppliers in our community and also reduced excess transportation and energy use.

Recycled materials, including structural steel framing and precast concrete walls, were used in construction. All carpeting and paints are low-emitting volatile organic compound (VOC) materials, ensuring we provide a healthy environment for patients and employees.

During construction, best practices were used for controlling sediment, preventing erosion and maintaining topsoil. This ensured topsoil did not leave our site and contribute to local air and water pollution. With the close proximity of Minnehaha Creek, these precautions had added significance.

Infrastructure costs were reduced by building on the previously developed site (footprint) on Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital’s campus. We also greatly reduced future transportation and energy needs by bringing all cancer services to a single location.

Building on Methodist Hospital’s footprint helped reduce overall construction debris. By using existing space, and many recycled materials, construction of Frauenshuh Cancer Center resulted in minimized amounts of unusable waste. More than 10 percent of waste was diverted.

At Frauenshuh Cancer Center, our goal is for you to notice no distinguishable difference in air quality when you walk into our center from the healing garden. Smoking is prohibited inside the cancer center and on all Park Nicollet property.

Ventilation systems were designed to provide fresh air in accordance to our everyday capacity of patients and employees. Variable air-volume controls allow for personalizing airflow and temperature. Combined with low-emitting VOC materials, air circulation is designed to be clean, healthy and refreshing. 

Maintaining vast lawns and plumbing for a building the size of Frauenshuh Cancer Center can require millions of gallons of water every year. To reduce our dependency on irrigation, or lawn watering and maintenance, native plantings were chosen as a primary landscape element.

 “Low-flow” indoor plumbing (toilets, urinals, sinks and showers) reduces water consumption by 25 percent (more than 96,000 gallons each year).

Altering and restoring the flow of a creek is no small task. In partnership with Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, construction of Frauenshuh Cancer Center included a rerouting, or meandering, of Minnehaha Creek.

This change was made for aesthetic and environmental reasons. It restored Minnehaha Creek to its original meandering condition and ensured no hazardous runoff would occur during construction or in the future.

This work and partnership received the 2008 Watershed Hero Award for use of innovative storm water management, restoring ecological integrity to the creek and increasing access to the creek and associated wetlands.

To fully appreciate the creek, native plants and occasional wildlife, traverse the trails and boardwalk between Frauenshuh Cancer Center and Louisiana Avenue.

Learn more about Sandra’s Garden of Hope.