For a lot of people, chemotherapy gives off a smell that can be sickly sweet, like body odor, and which can be nauseating.

A cancer survivor made that point to the design team behind UCHealth in Northern Colorado's $11 million, 30,000-square-foot cancer center, now under construction at UCHealth's Harmony Road campus in Fort Collins.

As a result, UCHealth moved the center's treatment areas to the back of the facility, so that patients who are visiting for other reasons can avoid the unpleasant smell that some associate with chemotherapy.

The center is the product of well over a year's worth of planning and research. It is being billed as a facility that will "raise the bar" on cancer care, with the latest technology, an array of clinical trials and some of the best thinking on caring for the emotional needs of cancer patients at its disposal.

Planning began with a series of conversations with cancer survivors, according to Kevin Unger, CEO of UCHealth's Poudre Valley Hospital.

About 100 different voices all provided input into the way the building should be constructed, including patients, physicians and other employees. UCHealth relied on a "survivors' wish list" for guidance.