Ponca Lincoln Clinic Renovations

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s Transportation Department operates Ponca Express, which provides Tribal members transportation to healthcare facilities in Omaha for their medical, dental and prescription needs. The transportation service was working successfully until the pandemic hit in 2020. Transportation services were suspended for safety concerns, leaving patients unable to meet their healthcare needs.

When the Coronavirus Aid Recovery and Economic Security (CARES) federal grant became available the Tribe seized the opportunity to use the funds to purchase an existing building in Lincoln with the goal of converting it into a healthcare facility. The challenge: funding had to be used by the end of 2020.

The Tribe quickly identified an existing building that met their needs and purchased the former eight-acre Black Hills Energy Building property, featuring a single-level commercial office and warehouse building built in 1988.

Seven Generations Architecture + Engineering (7GAE), in partnership with Hausmann Construction and WBK Engineering, provided design-build services to renovate 25,000 square feet of space into a healthcare clinic. The renovation and space conversion required rapid implementation and completion to meet the federal grant deadline.

Within days of project award, 7GAE was onsite conducting laser scans, documenting existing building conditions, and designing in real time. As a result of this accelerated effort, design was completed in two weeks and building permits were ready in four weeks.

The team successfully provided a facility that offered a variety of patient care services, including medical, dental, imaging, behavioral health, pharmacy, public health, minor operatory procedure rooms and traditional medicine, designed using the medical home model approach. Exterior building upgrades included a new entrance canopy and new exterior panels.

Despite the accelerated timeline, 7GAE also worked to ensure that the building serves as a source of identity for Native American patients, prioritizing cultural research, urban accessibility, and community consensus building throughout.

A second phase involved renovating additional parts of the building to provide 10,000 square feet of administrative space for the Tribal Affairs department, as well as space for a tribal archives library, community kitchen, a large community room, and a training center.

‍

‍