Design Complete on New VA Clinic

LEO A DALY has completed the design for an outpatient clinic at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The $86-million project adds 157,000 gross square feet of clinical space to the VA campus. When complete in summer 2020, the new facility will allow several outpatient services to move out of the main hospital, which opened in 1950. The clinic’s architecture draws on patriotic symbolism to honor veterans. Key design themes include:

• Freedom and sacrifice: A folded glass curtainwall covers the main façade, expressing the form of an American flag rippling in the wind.
• Honor: The western façade is lined with glass panes of different hues that evoke the ribbon bars awarded to service members.
• Duty: A limestone wall separates public spaces from secure clinical areas. The wall’s physical strength represents security. Its sedimentary composition references foreign soil tracked home, with layers representing periods of conflict and peace.

The design promotes patient-centered care by integrating spaces of refuge, healing gardens, a labyrinth, positive distractions, access to views and nature and an abundance of natural daylight. An on-grade connector links the clinic to the existing 12-story hospital.

The project is the first to take advantage of the 2016 CHIP IN for Vets Act, a new federal law that allows the VA to accept private donations to complete construction projects.

LEO A DALY is providing full design services for the project. McCarthy Construction is the general contractor.

Photo courtesy of LEO A DALY.