Months of work to remodel Winship Cancer Institute's Infusion Center have paid off with a much roomier waiting area for patients and a new "skylight." The skylight is in actuality painted panels that look like a blue sky with clouds. "It brings the outside in," says Beth Parks, a multiple myeloma survivor from Avondale Estates. "You feel like you're outside."

That's exactly what the designers aimed to do, says architect Gil May of May Architecture and Interiors, the firm that oversaw the re-design of the infusion center and installation of the skylight. Although fluorescent lights are used, they are set to a certain temperature so that the light they emit has a different effect than typical fluorescents.

Renovations to the Infusion Center don't stop there. The check-in desk in the center of the pre-infusion waiting area was moved. That one change "really opens up the room," says Rebecca Doolittle, facilities manager for Winship. New, more comfortable flooring was added, along with new comfy furniture in lighter, pastel colors. Older furniture was donated to the nonprofit company, MedShare, which will send the chairs to Africa for use in clinics there.

Patient feedback was essential to the renovation. Doolittle and other Winship leaders spent a great deal of time assessing the recommendations of patients and families to see how best to meet their needs.

The Infusion Center offers chemotherapy and other types of cancer treatment.