Last beam placed on Sorrell Center

Iron workers Val Valdez (left), and Tad Going prepare to install the final beam of the Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education on Monday. The building will be the new home for the UNMC College of Medicine.

The UNMC community celebrated a construction milestone Monday as the last beam — covered with faculty, staff and student signatures — was set in place on the Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education.

Three attached flags flapped in the wind as the Peter Kiewit tower crane hoisted the beige beam off parking garage 4 and across Emily Street, where construction personnel guided it to its resting place near the southwest corner of the Sorrell Center.

As the crowd watched from atop the parking garage, ironworker Tad Going of Remcon signaled thumbs up once the beam was in place.

“This represents a significant milestone in the construction of this building,” said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., while thanking the multiple donors, including alumni who supported the project, and the construction teams giving rise to the building.

Michael Sorrell, M.D., signs the final beam for the Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education. The beam was installed Monday during a ceremony to commemorate the campus construction milestone.

“I’ve watched the medical center grow from pretty humble beginnings almost 50 years ago,” Dr. Sorrell said. “In the excitement of building a research and clinical enterprise we’ve never lost track of our main reason to be here, that is to educate and develop medical students.”

The Sorrell Center, expected to open in the fall of 2008, will be the new home of the UNMC College of Medicine.