One building sprouted this spring and two more were planted in a series of unprecedented public and privately supported projects at the medical center — buildings that will put UNMC on the leading edge of patient care, education and research.
In a 10-week period from May to July, UNMC hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, a ribbon-cutting for the Mary and Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program and the grand opening of the Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute.
Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., who has now presided over groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and dedications for 16 different buildings in his 15 years of leadership at UNMC, called the changes “transformational.”
The new $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the largest project ever at UNMC,
was named in recognition of a gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation from Pamela Buffett, through her foundation, the Rebecca Susan Buffett Foundation. Pamela’s husband, Fred “Fritz” Buffett, died in 1997 after fighting kidney cancer.
Omaha philanthropist Susie Buffett, representing Pamela Buffett, called the new center “an international beacon of light.” “These patients will benefit from the research advances that will be developed here, as well as the outstanding patient care that will be delivered,” she said.
Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, said the center will integrate state-of-the-art cancer research with state-of-the-art cancer care.
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center includes:
- a 10-story, 98-laboratory research tower named the Suzanne and Walter Scott Cancer
Research Tower;
- a seven-story, 108-bed inpatient treatment center named the C.L. Werner Cancer
Hospital; and
- a multidisciplinary outpatient center.
The project will create thousands of jobs citywide in construction and other industries. In addition, approximately 1,200 jobs will be needed at the medical center — each with an average salary of approximately $70,000. In all, the project will provide 4,657 new jobs to the metro area, infusing $537 million annually into the economy on an on-going basis. The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center will be ready for occupancy in 2017.