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Harold M. and Beverly Maurer Center for Public Health
Scott Student Plaza & Hope Tower
Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute
Health Science Education Complex
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
This 52,500 square foot building houses the College of Public Health. Approved by the Board of Regents in 2006, it was the first newly created college on UNMC’s campus since 1968. The mission of the College of Public Health is to promote optimal health and well-being through robust education, research, and service in collaboration with communities in Nebraska, across the country, and around the world.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
Hope Tower was designed by lead architect Richard Kress at James Carpenter Design Associates in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM). This project is an immense tower surfaced in 16-guage titanium-coated stainless-steel panels attached to an open structure. The perforations effectively create a visually lightweight aesthetic, which the architects describe as an attempt to reflect the artistic nature of Nebraska.
Standing at 120 feet, Hope Tower was paid for by a generous private donation led by Ruth and Bill Scott of Omaha, Nebraska. It provides a beacon for students, serving as both a navigational tool and an artistic centerpiece to the Scott Student Plaza.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute brings clinicians, researchers, and patients together in one state-of-the-art facility featuring specialized care and the latest in diagnostic medicine. A $20 million, 54,536 square foot facility, the Truhlsen Eye Institute features outpatient eye exam facilities, an optical shop, and a comprehensive regional diagnostic center.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Health Science Education Complex on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus houses programs for the College of Nursing and the College of Allied Health Professions. Seven programs are offered in the 30,000 square foot building: nursing and graduate nursing, physician assistant, physical therapy, clinical laboratory science, medical nutrition, and radiography and diagnostic medical sonography. The building also contains seven classrooms, five laboratories, and 14 simulation areas.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, a $323 million project, is named in recognition of a leading gift from Pamela Buffett in honor of her husband through her foundation, The Rebecca Susan Buffett Foundation. The cancer center houses research facilities, a multidisciplinary outpatient treatment center, and a clinic. The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is the only cancer center in Nebraska with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. It is one of 67 NCI-designated centers in the country, earning this designation based on scientific excellence and the capability to integrate diverse research programs focused on cancer.
In recognition of significant gifts, a hospital tower is named the C.L. Werner Cancer Hospital and a research tower is named the Suzanne and Walter Scott Cancer Research Tower. Since 2017, the Center has housed the Chihuly Sanctuary, the most comprehensive health care environment structure ever created by world-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
Dedicated on June 14th, 2017, Omaha artist Jun Kaneko created and constructed the 82-foot lighted glass tower as a part of a series of art projects associated with the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center through the Healing Arts Program and the 1% for Art program. Kaneko titled the piece Search with the intent of creating an installation that has a universal impact on all of the people who work at the medical center as caregivers, researchers, doctors, and nurses, as well as the patients and families who come to the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center for treatment. The white and black bands of the Search tower represent the patterns of human chromosomes, which comprise DNA and proteins, carrying fundamental instructions for cells in the form of genes. Mutations of these chromosomes can cause cancer.
Fun Facts:
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
This 85,000 square foot building, serving as the new home of the College of Pharmacy, expanded educational space and increased research capacity. The state-of-the-art facility provides patient care simulation and instructional space to emphasize the increasing role of pharmacists in providing primary health care. The building also provides laboratory and research support space designed to accommodate the specific technical needs of pharmaceutical research. Research activities conducted in the Center for Drug Discovery focus on infectious diseases, making UNMC a national leader in the field.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Lauritzen Outpatient Center and the Fritch Surgery Center are housed in a 170,000 square foot building with outpatient clinics, an outpatient surgery center with 10 operating rooms, surgeon and faculty offices, telehealth offices, and research space for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Lincoln Division of the UNMC College of Nursing shares a cutting-edge facility with the University Health Center of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Located near 19th and Antelope Valley on the edge of campus, the College of Nursing’s portion of the building was designed to attract more nursing faculty and raise the level of nursing education and research. The 107,000 square foot building opened in 2018 and cost $43.9 million, with the College of Nursing portion estimated at $19.8 million.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
Completed in September 2019, the greenspace and lighted walkway, located on the northwest corner of 42nd and Leavenworth Streets, acts as a southern entrance to the medical campus. It features eighteen 13-foot ceramic columnar sculptures created by Omaha artist Jun Kaneko; the installation is titled Origin. The sculptures are incorporated into a grove of mature trees with benches lining the walk to provide visitors, medical center employees, and students the opportunity to seek calmness and beauty amid a tranquil park-like setting.
As a part of their generous contributions for the plaza, philanthropists Bob and Polina Schlott dedicated a plaque in the space to honor Polina’s mother, Larisa Poluektova, MD, PhD, a professor in the UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience and co-director of the Translational Mouse Model Core Facility. Dr. Poluektova has served the UNMC community for over twenty years.
Fun Facts:
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Dr. Edwin G. & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center (Davis Global Center) is a highly advanced clinical simulation facility purposefully designed to foster the practice of patient care in highly functioning and effective inter-professional teams. The 192,000 square foot center is made up of five levels that work together to create a safe and innovative learning environment. For more information, please visit https://go.unmc.edu/davisglobalcenter.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The Munroe-Meyer Institute began with the Society for the Relief of the Disabled (SRD), founded in 1919. SRD provided orthopedic treatments to individuals with physical disabilities in Omaha. In 1922, John Munroe gifted the SRD the Hattie B. Munroe Home in Benson to care for children with disabilities in honor of his late wife. UNMC partnered with the organization in 1958 to move the Hattie B. Munroe Home to a new building on the 42nd Street campus. The new building contained 56 beds. By 1959, UNMC provided multiple services for children with disabilities, including access to education at the J.P. Lord School, therapy at the C. Louis Meyer Center, access to Children’s Hospital for medical needs, and residence at the Munroe Home. All these facilities merged in 1997 as the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics & Rehabilitation and continue to provide outreach, engagement, educational programs, innovative research, and extraordinary patient care. The newest facility for the Munroe-Meyer Institute is located near the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Scott Campus.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
Dedicated June 16th, 2021, the highlight of the Plaza is Convergence, a sculpture by the Jenny Sabin Studio. A process or state of coming together, where flows and currents meet and evolve together in a shared environment, Convergence and the Plaza serve as the outdoor threshold to the campus welcome center. This is an ideal setting for conversations, fellowship, and engagement by students and faculty.
Using the most advanced methods and innovations in digital and robotic fabrication and integration of timeless and contextually sensitive materials that interact with the sun and human perception, Convergence is at once inspirational and forward-looking. It celebrates the thriving, vibrant, and rich heritage of excellence of the University of Nebraska Medical Center through materialized concepts that embed change, transformation, and contemplation. Convergence celebrates people coming together from around the world.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The 10,000 square foot Wigton Heritage Center serves as a campus welcome center and celebrates UNMC's history and the history of the health sciences in Nebraska. The privately-funded project replaced the existing walkways between Wittson Hall and University Tower, connecting the two buildings on levels 3 through 5. The Wigton Heritage Center tells UNMC's story through gallery and digital exhibit space, showcases the McGoogan Library's vast special collections, artifacts, archives, and rare books, and exposes University Hospital's historic façade and iconic columns within its glass atrium.
From the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Strategic Communications
The main entrance of the Wigton Heritage Center features Untitled Dango, a sculpture by Jun Kaneko. The sculpture was dedicated on June 10th, 2021, in honor of Gail Walling Yanney, MD, a UNMC alum and former clinical instructor in the College of Medicine. Dr. Yanney and her husband, Michael Yanney, have been significant philanthropists and supporters of UNMC for many years.
Jun Kaneko is an internationally renowned artist who is highly respected in both the contemporary art and ceramic fields. Born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1942, Kaneko came to the United States in 1963 and became drawn to sculptural ceramics. He has lived and worked in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1986. Known for his large-scale hand-built clay sculptures that challenge the limits of ceramics, Kaneko’s approach to art is an adventure in scale. His Dango is a simple form (dango is the Japanese word for dumpling). The soft, edgeless shape of this monolith gives it a human, approachable quality. The painterly handling of the surface with its layers of blue glaze becomes a canvas in the round, capturing Kaneko’s attraction to intuitive patterning and astonishing colors.
