A construction crew took care of the groundbreaking last month for the Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute on the Sacramento campus, so a June 16 celebration was just that: a celebration.

Mark Mannis, professor and chair, UC Davis Health Eye Center, was among the limited number of people who gathered on-site to give remarks for a livestream audience, including the 95-year-old Tschannen. He’s a grateful patient who provided the gift for the building.

The start of construction last month “marked the first step toward a new era in eye care in Northern California,” Mannis said in a message to the UC Davis Health community June 19.

“When it opens in 2022, the Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute will house the delivery of cutting-edge patient care, inspired educational programs for tomorrow’s health care leaders, and a pioneering research environment that will generate new discoveries in medicine, science and health care,” he wrote.

“The new institute will be the home of talented researchers working on developing cures for blinding eye diseases, physicians delivering excellence in patient-centered care and educators training the physician leaders of tomorrow.”

Addition to ACC

The 58,000-square-foot institute is being built as an addition to the Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, or ACC, the largest and most active outpatient facility on the Sacramento campus. The addition will be at the ACC’s northeast corner; Y Street in front of the ACC is being pushed north (by removing the grass divider between the eastbound and westbound lanes) to accommodate the construction.

The project also includes the renovation on the first floor of the ACC, 17,500 gross square feet of existing clinic space. The eye center will vacate its second-floor space, and it will be available for relocation and consolidation of other hospital-based outpatient clinics located in inefficient and seismically deficient facilities on the Sacramento campus.

“Ernest has made this dream — for so many of us — come alive through his dedication and generosity, and we offer to him our utmost appreciation,” Mannis wrote.

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