Gift will expand and enhance entrance to UNMC’s new clinical simulation facility

A $2.8 million gift will provide art and a striking entrance to one of the newest facilities under construction at the University of Nebraska Medical Center that will serve as home to advanced clinical simulation for the latest in medical education and training.

The gift allows for a three-story lighted art decorative screen wall that will welcome visitors as they make their way toward the Dr. Edwin Davis & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning, currently under construction at 42nd and Emile Streets in Omaha.

The architectural artwork will be created by renowned architecture company Zahner of Kansas City, Missouri, which has designs around the world.

The screen wall also will be visible to east and westbound traffic on Leavenworth Street between 41st and 42nd streets.

Funded by private dollars, the decorative wall will accent the now $121.8 million facility designed to transform the way health professionals learn new skills and acquire new knowledge.

“We are grateful for the private philanthropic support that is making this possible,” said UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. “This gift truly enhances the Davis Global Center and will help welcome visitors to this unique facility. Our campus is graced with amazing art work, which will be enhanced by this philanthropic gift to include the Davis Global Center.”

The Davis Global Center will house UNMC’s iEXCEL (Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning) program and expose students to interprofessional clinical simulation training exercises, surgical skills training and realistic environments through virtual and augmented reality, holographic and visualization techniques.

It also will house the National Center for Health Security and Biopreparedness. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the center will enable UNMC to teach federal health care personnel procedures in diagnosing and treating highly infectious diseases.

The art piece will feature metal and glass – the hallmark of Zahner. Zahner also engineered the stainless steel panels for UNMC’s iconic Hope Tower on the Ruth and Bill Scott Student Plaza.
The company’s global portfolio includes the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City; the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; the Chihuly Bridge of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, the Kowloon Station in Hong Kong; and the Sidra Medical Center in Doha, Qatar and many other iconic examples of truly iconic and functional architecture.