Years of Work Come to Fruition with Completion of New $86M Veterans Hospital

Years of work finally came to fruition on July 23, when private fundraisers delivered the keys to Omaha’s new veteran’s outpatient care and health clinic to Veterans Affairs (VA). The new state-of-the-art building will serve 150,000 veterans in Nebraska and western Iowa. Private philanthropy, working through local donor group Heritage Services, raised private money and $56 million from the VA and managed construction of the project in the first-of-its-kind public-private partnership.

Architect John Andrews of Leo A Daly (leoadaly.com) designed the $86 million Veterans Affairs Medical Center to offer improved patient experience for veterans. It’s unlike any other VA campus, drawing on patriotic symbolism to honor veterans, according to the architectural firm:

  • Freedom and Sacrifice: A folded glass curtain wall covers the main façade, expressing the form of an American flag rippling in the wind.
  • Honor: The breathtaking 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. Limestones sedimentary composition references foreign soil tracked home, with layers representing periods of conflict and peace through which veterans have served.

The three-level building includes seven primary-care units, an outpatient surgery suite, a women’s health clinic, and a specialty medicine unit allowing 400 additional outpatients to visit the medical center each day. Everything about this project “is a love letter to America’s veterans,” Andrews said. Learn more at leoadaly.com/va-outpatient-omaha.