For more than 100 years, University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) students of Catholic faith had to improvise host locations for campus ministry programs. That changed in 2016, when Boyd Jones completed the Archdiocese of Omaha’s St. John Paul II Newman Center, an 88,000 SF facility adjacent to UNO’s Pacific Campus.
The four-story building provides housing for 164 students in 49 fully-furnished apartments in addition to study spaces, a library, prayer and meeting rooms, a chapel and rectory — all surrounding a central prayer garden and courtyard. Above all, the center provides a permanent home for campus ministry programs.
Boyd Jones deftly maneuvered its construction schedule to finish the residential portion of the St. John Paul II Newman Center on a hard deadline, giving UNO students time to move in while the project team completed the oratory portion of the facility. The end result is an inspiring center in which students can live, study, socialize, and stay rooted to their faith, replete with trappings evocative of Catholic tradition like the custom-designed, cross-bearing Sacred Entrance and 30-foot bell tower.
