The groundbreaking — which happened four months ahead of schedule — took place on a nine-acre parcel of land in Downtown Las Vegas. The event was attended by NHBC CEO Maureen Schafer; Dean of the UNLV School of Medicine Marc J. Kahn, MD, MBA; Las Vegas City Councilman (Ward 1) Brian Knudsen; Clark County Commissioner (District D) Lawrence Weekly; and Constituent Services Representative at the Office of Governor Steve Sisolak, Eric Cardona, among others.
Upon completion, the new medical education building will be approximately 135,000 square feet and accommodate a class size of up to 120, doubling its current capacity.
The majority of the project has been funded by more than $150 million in private donations, including contributions from the Engelstad Foundation and Lincy Foundation, among others. It is situated within the Las Vegas Medical District, a collaborative effort between the City of Las Vegas and the Downtown Las Vegas medical and health care community.
“Today marked another important accomplishment for this project, our future medical professionals, and, ultimately, the sustained vitality of all Southern Nevadans,” Schafer said. “From our donors to our partners throughout Nevada, consistent collaboration has resulted in today’s event. The work will now continue to ensure the building will soon be ready for the UNLV School of Medicine and our community.”
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“The new medical education building being constructed with the generous support of our donors will allow the school of medicine to better realize its mission, to ‘care for the community’ while providing for economic development and diversification of the Las Vegas economy,” Kahn said.
The design of the building, created by TSK Architects, reflects UNLV’s forward-thinking curriculum with training spaces for clinical skills, simulation, and anatomy — both virtual and cadaveric dissection. The classrooms will also be various sizes to support problem-based learning, administrative offices, and a learning resources center. A Brookings Mountain West/Tripp Umbach study found that a new medical school in Las Vegas would equate to people being less likely to leave for medical care and it would equate to an infusion of $1.2 billion per year locally after its first 15 years of startup.
Currently, the medical school building is slated to be completed in 2022.
