“Image: Leo Daly“
“OMAHA WORLD HERLAD“
“It stands out as the country’s first private-public funded health care facility built under the Communities Helping Invest through Property and Improvements Needed (CHIP IN) for Vets Act passed by Congress in 2016.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report recommending the VA share lessons learned from the Omaha project, as it could help guide similar ventures in the future.“
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“It’s a hallmark of Omaha’s new $86 million veterans health center: a glass atrium wall rising three stories and resembling an American flag rippling in the wind.
Guests walking through another section become awash in a kaleidoscope of colors reflected through a series of tinted windows. That’s meant to be reminiscent of ribbon racks on military uniforms.
Yet another wall in the 160,000-square-foot VA Ambulatory Care Center is limestone, a nod to layers of wars and far-away soil tracked back home.
Those and other features helped earn Omaha-based LEO A DALY and landscape architect Vireo a prestigious national distinction by Interior Design. The addition to the VA Medical Center campus at 42nd Street and Woolworth Avenue was named one of four Best of Year honorees in the health care category (the win went to a New York City project).
Jonathan Fliege, who led the architectural and interior design team along with Jennifer Ankerson, called the venture a highlight of his career. Behind each design element is a metaphor or symbolic message meant to honor veterans.
“Once it’s up and built you just get this sense of fulfillment, almost like you’ve done your part to give respect to the veterans who have given their service, their lives, to our country,” Fliege said.
Open since late summer, the ambulatory care hub equipped to handle 400 patients a day was built on a former parking lot and links to the main 12-story VA hospital.
It adds eight primary care clinics (one exclusively for women), an outpatient surgery suite and other specialty services to the medical campus.
Just this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report recommending the VA share lessons learned from the Omaha project, as it could help guide similar ventures in the future.
Area officials say the $30 million in private investment raised by Omaha’s Heritage Services opened the door to more local influence and design enhancements than are typically found in health care facilities funded only with public dollars. McCarthy Building Cos. was general contractor.
Other featured elements include an expansive outdoor “healing garden” with a walking path, and artwork by area veterans or artists with close ties to veterans. LEO A DALY architect Jen Karls orchestrated the effort to commission the artwork displayed at the center.
Eleven area artists are showcased throughout the facility, including Matthew Placzek’s soaring eagle sculpture titled Majestic Flight.
Other featured artists (including painters, photographers and a weaver) are Robert Allen, Daniel Boylan, Patrick Drickey, Paul Otero, Hal Holoun, Scott Charles Ross, Shannon Sargent, Meghan Stevens, Bart Vargas and Mary Zicafoose.”
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