Omaha Civic Auditorium demo. as of 9-25-2016....just odd seeing the tiers where the seats were, and the stairways with yellow visibility stripes from the upper bowl just hanging there...also, in one of the photos below, you can see one of the staircases of the south lobby still intact.
jag42 wrote:I wonder where all the seats were taken to....surprised there wasn't some type of sale or auction on them, if there was, I never heard of it.
Is there no secondary market for those windows that made up the entryway? It seems wasteful to just smash them in with the crane? If you had offered them to some company who had the skills to remove them at no cost would someone have taken them?
I made several calls to Spiritas wreaking and left voicemails in reguards to the flagpole. I offered to remove the flagpole during off hours (to not hold up demolition) free of charge, I even offered some money if they let me salvage it. I made it clear I had insurance to cover liability. No call back and within a week they ripped it from the ground and scraped it.
Mystikbrian wrote:I made several calls to Spiritas wreaking and left voicemails in reguards to the flagpole. I offered to remove the flagpole during off hours (to not hold up demolition) free of charge, I even offered some money if they let me salvage it. I made it clear I had insurance to cover liability. No call back and within a week they ripped it from the ground and scraped it.
Very very disappointing!
A company wins a 3 million dollar bid and you thought they would let a random person in off the street come into the job site with heavy equipment to do part of their job?
Joe_Sovereign wrote:Is there no secondary market for those windows that made up the entryway? It seems wasteful to just smash them in with the crane? If you had offered them to some company who had the skills to remove them at no cost would someone have taken them?
It does seem very wasteful. But those type of windows are made-to-fit the specific application and are not off-the-shelf sizes. Even though that part of the Civic was less than 30 years old, Glass technology (ie Low-E coatings, etc) has advanced enough since they were installed, that anyone building a new building would want newer, more energy-efficient glass, most likely.
I hope they recycle the aluminum frames at least.
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings" ...and then they were gone.
Mystikbrian wrote:I made several calls to Spiritas wreaking and left voicemails in reguards to the flagpole. I offered to remove the flagpole during off hours (to not hold up demolition) free of charge, I even offered some money if they let me salvage it. I made it clear I had insurance to cover liability. No call back and within a week they ripped it from the ground and scraped it.
Very very disappointing!
A company wins a 3 million dollar bid and you thought they would let a random person in off the street come into the job site with heavy equipment to do part of their job?
Update on this thread to the best of my ability. Using the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) I asked to see all correspondence between the City and Tetrad including any contracts. The city did not provide the information I requested within the timeframe required by law. But showed pretty good faith in getting it to me. I had heard that there was a contract to purchase the land and develop it --that Tetrad had a contract with the city. No such thing. Buster Brown confirmed it when I spoke with him in person: there is no contract. Doesn't exist. So this leads to the question--Why not? I noticed the city just wrote a check to an outfit from Chicago for $3,000,000 for the demolition of a building that could have been put to many good uses. It is sad to me that we lack the energy to ask big questions, find out what is going on and stop the rampant demolitions when there is not even a contract. By the way, I understood that this demo was not to have cost the city anything---so promised LOL. Why would the city spend so much money just to set up the building for Tetrad? I do realize that maintaining the building is costly too---but make a stronger effort to put that building to creative use. Alas, it is too late!
magis wrote: I noticed the city just wrote a check to an outfit from Chicago for $3,000,000 for the demolition of a building that could have been put to many good uses.
Erm....what, besides "auditorium", could this particular building have been used for?
It can be done, Memphis turned their old arena into a giant Bass Pro Shop, Houston putting $ into the Astrodome to repurpose it, another arena in Houston got turned into a mega church. I don't really know if anyone would have been willing to spend the cash to repurpose the Civic though. It would have cost a heck of a lot more than $3 million.
magis wrote:Update on this thread to the best of my ability. Using the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) I asked to see all correspondence between the City and Tetrad including any contracts. The city did not provide the information I requested within the timeframe required by law. But showed pretty good faith in getting it to me. I had heard that there was a contract to purchase the land and develop it --that Tetrad had a contract with the city. No such thing. Buster Brown confirmed it when I spoke with him in person: there is no contract. Doesn't exist. So this leads to the question--Why not? I noticed the city just wrote a check to an outfit from Chicago for $3,000,000 for the demolition of a building that could have been put to many good uses. It is sad to me that we lack the energy to ask big questions, find out what is going on and stop the rampant demolitions when there is not even a contract. By the way, I understood that this demo was not to have cost the city anything---so promised LOL. Why would the city spend so much money just to set up the building for Tetrad? I do realize that maintaining the building is costly too---but make a stronger effort to put that building to creative use. Alas, it is too late!
Thanks for the imput and welcome to the forum..
As it relates to the Civic demolition and what future development is waiting in the wings.. The rumor mill has certainly been churning lately. Will it be a highrise development (as many here hope)? Will it lay vacant and start collecting weeds (think the old UP site/the Wallstreet Tower disaster)? Could it be the city is eyeing this property for the future site of a new downtown library?.. It's anyone's guess..
The absolute worst thing that could happen, is the property lay doorment for multiple years and sprout natural shrubbery (weeds).. My best guess is that we should know something (anything) within the next 6-12 months. The pessimist in me says to not get my hopes up.. we'll see...
Not every building needs to be salvaged and repurposed. Some buidlings (the Civic is certainly one of them) are crying out for the wrecking ball. The preservationist impulse is fine, but when pushed to the point of being a preservationist fetish it will cause a city to stagnate. Good riddance to a bad building.
iamjacobm wrote:It can be done, Memphis turned their old arena into a giant Bass Pro Shop, Houston putting $ into the Astrodome to repurpose it, another arena in Houston got turned into a mega church. I don't really know if anyone would have been willing to spend the cash to repurpose the Civic though. It would have cost a heck of a lot more than $3 million.
I knew about the Memphis BPS, but not the Houston church. I guess I just don't see there having been any local usage like that for the Civic, though?
The land/location seems to be perfect for a Fareway-type grocery store. I would bulldoze the Civic for this land trade-off in a heartbeat:
1.) Fareway grocery
2.) Multi-story Target
3.) New Police HQ location
4.) New library
I agree with you that it's suspicious the city agreed to pay for demolition without a contract for redevelopment. I suspect the city government could save face by telling taxpayers a deal had been made. Even if Tetrad reneged, there would be a prime spot of downtown real estate that could be developed or given to OPS.
That's the city's M.O.
Demo the buildings now and ask questions later.
Doesn't matter who is paying for it.
Heck, sell the land for a $1 if it feels right.
Pulled down a couple more roof trusses this morning; only one remaining on the north end.
IMG_3061.JPG (124.22 KiB) Viewed 4065 times
magis wrote:By the way, I understood that this demo was not to have cost the city anything---so promised LOL.
I've never seen anything indicating that demo wouldn't cost the city anything, and the city issuing the contract certainly indicates otherwise. The closest thing was when the originally selected contractor defaulted, there were statements that due to the bonding required there would be no additional cost to the city.
This is really moving along now....the roof and supporting structure are just about all collapsed, and they are now tearing into the north end...lots of old blue arena seats visible...
I think that the civic site will partially be used to relocate the Downtown library. The city really wants a new library and I know that many developers really covet the site of the existing library. I do not think either location will lay dormant. I do not thing a high rise at the civic location is being looked at anymore. The existing library site is the most coveted space in downtown Omaha and one of the reasons the mayor wants to free up that spot. Whether Kiewit or Mutual or whoever, they all love that site because you are front and center for every picture/video of Omaha that goes out to the world. If that site becomes available you should expect big things to take place at that location.
Catherine33 wrote:I think that the civic site will partially be used to relocate the Downtown library. The city really wants a new library and I know that many developers really covet the site of the existing library. I do not think either location will lay dormant. I do not thing a high rise at the civic location is being looked at anymore. The existing library site is the most coveted space in downtown Omaha and one of the reasons the mayor wants to free up that spot. Whether Kiewit or Mutual or whoever, they all love that site because you are front and center for every picture/video of Omaha that goes out to the world. If that site becomes available you should expect big things to take place at that location.
The civic is kind of an odd site for a high-rise. I think a few mid sized buildings is a good trade off for a high-rise at the library site.