Holland Performing Arts Center - Construction & Development

[eomaha]

FYI, the Holland Performing Arts Center has two threads. An Event Thread in the Entertainment Forum and the Construction and Development Thread in the Urban DEVELOPMENT forum:

Holland Performing Arts Center - Events Thread
viewtopic.php?t=1389

Holland Performing Arts Center - Construction & Development
viewtopic.php?t=507


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Holland Performing Arts Center


I think we predicted this some time ago.

Omaha's arts center named after Hollands

Omaha's new home for the performing arts will be named the Holland Performing Arts Center, in honor of local philanthropists Richard and Mary Holland.

The Omaha Performing Arts Society announced Wednesday that the Hollands were chosen in recognition of a significant gift they provided for the project. The private society manages the Orpheum Theater and the new performing arts center, which will open next year.

"Their gift enabled us to move forward with this project and to realize the vision of a new performing arts center for Omaha," said Joan Squires, president of the arts society.

Other than saying that the gift was a "big bucket of money," Richard Holland did not disclose the specific amount. In announcing the gift at a 2002 Omaha City Council meeting, society chairman John Gottschalk said it would be one of the largest individual gifts ever given to an organization in Omaha.

"Just putting up the money is a small part of the whole thing," said Richard Holland, who is vice president of the society's board of directors. "It takes all kinds to make this kind of thing happen. All the bucket does is stimulate the whole thing."

Squires said the society has raised 94 percent of the $100 million needed for its campaign, which will support the $90 million performing arts center and a $10 million renovation to the Orpheum Theater in 2002.

The City of Omaha is contributing $15 million of the cost, with $85 million coming from local individuals, corporations and foundations.

The new performing arts center, being built across from the Gene Leahy Mall, will include a 2,000-seat concert hall, an outdoor courtyard with a capacity of 1,000 and a recital hall with seating for 450.

Squires said that before the center opens, other areas in the facility will be named, based on donor wishes.

Richard Holland, 83, and his wife, Mary, 80, have lived most of their lives in the Midlands. Mary graduated from Brownell Hall, now Brownell-Talbot School, and attended Mills College in Oakland, Calif. Richard graduated from the University of Omaha in chemistry and fine arts.

The couple met at a party in Omaha and were married in July 1948.

Richard Holland began his career in advertising and public relations in 1946 and helped to establish Omaha's Holland Dreves Reilly agency in 1957. The company merged with Swanson, Sinkey, Ellis of Lincoln in 1979. Holland remained a principal member until his retirement in the early 1980s. The Hollands have three daughters who live in Colorado and Texas.

"We've lived our lives here," Richard Holland said. "Everything good that has happened to us has happened here. We owe the community a debt."

Much of the Hollands' wealth is derived from their decision to invest with Warren Buffett in the mid-1950s, when Buffett began organizing investment partnerships.

The Hollands don't talk about their wealth and they sometimes ask organizations not to disclose the amount of their donations. They still live in the one-story house near 84th and Pacific Streets that they built in 1957.

The Hollands are known for being generous with their resources and not asking for anything in return. They have been involved in a number of nonprofit organizations, including Opera Omaha, the Omaha Symphony and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, as well as social service agencies focused on children's issues.

The couple have been involved with the performing arts center project since its inception, and "can't wait" for the facility to open, Richard Holland said.

"What we see for this hall is not only a revival but a broad expansion of the arts in the community," he said. "It's going to be a place I hope everybody in Omaha comes, young and old. It's not some kind of thing set up to honor the well-to-do. If it was, we wouldn't have done it."

[edsas]

I'm glad they had a classy sounding name. Imagine if it had been named for Richard and Mary Fudwinkler.

[DTO Luv]

So are we going to just call it the Holland? That actually has a nice ring to it.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I think it has a nice ring to it, as well.

I'm sure it will be reffered to casually as The Holland, Holland Center, or The Holland Center.

[projectman]

Can't wait to see how the building looks from the street level. I don't remember what kind of "signage" or if there will be some sort of bright neon marquee that will light up the area in bright colors. I think downtown needs a few more bright colorful neon type lighting. I remember the first time I walked through Times Square in NY at night. I loved all the neon flashing lights and video billboards. Very cool.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Bright "neon" lighting can be very cool and sleek, but it can also be very trashy if not done right. If the center is to have a lighting scheme and lit up signage, I'm sure it will be done in a classy, sleek way.

[DTO Luv]

If you have seen the finished renderings it looks like it will have an internal light sceme that will pour out into the Mall. I think Douglas St. will look very cool at night in the winter with FNC, UP, and the Holland Center all lit up. I wonder if UP will have a Christmas light theme like all of the other buildings DT?

[almighty_tuna]

I'm boiling over with excitement! Can't wait for some good snow for that picture!

[DTO Luv]

In the fog that area would look real spooky.

[jborg]

speaking about winter, does anyone know what they will do to the FNB tower this Christmas? I think it might be interesting if they make the top red and green

[eomaha]

They have in the past... I'm sure they will this year as well.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I've never really been impressed by what FNC does for the holidays. I'd love to see a red, white, and green scheme over the entire building with each "setback" a different color. And just leave the crown white.

[DTO Luv]

Lat year they talked with the lady who runs the FNC Christmas lights and she said that they will remain green like last year. She said it was something about green being the companies color, it being a bank (money is green), and green was a Christmas color. I liked when they did it red that first year. FNC should do a lighting scheme for every holiday. That would be a way cool picture.

I'm curious to see what UP will do for christmas lighting?

[RyaninOrangeCounty]

FNB tried red a couple of years back and I thought it looked like the glowing red coils of a space heater at the top of the building. Did anyone else make that connection?

[OmahaMan25]

Why don't they just keep it green all year round? There are lots of buildings in bigger cities that have colored lights all year round. I think green would be a great fit as well (as seen last Christmas).

[projectman]

Is red, white and green the only choices? It would be cool to see a different variety of colors over the summer. Blues, purples, yellows.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I'm all for changing the lighting scheme more than just for Christmas, or just keeping it green all year round and maybe adding some red for the holidays.

I didn't like the first Christmas when the crown was red. It was actually more of a pinkish red, and I think that's why I didn't like it.

For some reason, I really doubt UP will do anything special for the holidays. Maybe they'll surprise me. Plus, is there really that much they CAN do? I hope they don't do something cheesy like make all the office lights form a Christmas tree shape or something.

[projectman]

I can see U.P going with the flow of some of the other buildings in the area and top the roof line with white the white lights. I don't think they'll get too radical.

[DTO Luv]

I would like to see the Landmark builing get lit up in general. It's one of my favorite buildings DT and it is usually left out of pictures and invisible at night. Some Qwest Center like lights would do it good.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I agree about Landmark Center.

[projectman]

I thought the Landmark Centers points, on top of the building, each were lit up in white from the inside at one time.

[DTO Luv]

They are lit but it's either the bulbs are dim, it's to dirty, or they weren't that bright to begin with. Compared to the lights on the Woodmen, First National, and UP, the Landmark building is like a candle among flash lights.

[OmahaMan25]

Even if, it needs more like an outline or something. I think the Qwest building would look great lit up at night too. A little light goes a long way.

[DTO Luv]

Very true. Look at Des Moines.

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=115197

[DMRyan]

That photo is digitally enhanced. However, almost all the major highrises have some kind of downtown lighting scheme.

[DTO Luv]

The first time I went through DM at night I thought it was cool how the buildings were lit up. It seemed like a good majority of them were. The last time I went out and and got night pics os DTO I was kind of disappointed. Most of the buildings disappeared. Around FNC, UP, and the Woodmen were exceptions but the Landmark and Qwest bildings could use some flood lights or outlining lights.

[projectman]

I like the way Dallas has its skyscrapers outlined or criss-crossed with white and even green lights. It looks pretty cool at night.

[DMRyan]

As tacky as some of the Dallas buildings look at night, I must admit I admire a tackily-lit skyline like Hong Kong or Miami too.

[eomaha]

From the Omaha Performing Arts Society website.


From upper balcony

South lobby looking west

Recital hall

More photos...

[OmahaMan25]

WOW, I can't wait till this is done. It looks great! What a nice addition to downtown it will make. Was there any truth to the HC having any street level resteraunts or something like that?

[Coyote]

Holland Center has its shape

After the highest steel beam is in place at the top of the Holland Performing Arts Center, it will mark the end of one act and the beginning of the next for the new facility.

More than 7,000 plaster panels designed to control acoustics will be put in place. A lantern, or line of clerestory windows around the upper part of the concert hall, will be installed.

Workers will begin these details and others over the winter months, after the steel structure is officially complete.

A "topping-off" ceremony - which symbolizes the point where a building's highest steel beam is hoisted into place - was planned for Wednesday afternoon.

"It's an accomplishment to put the last structural steel member on the structure," Vern Kuehn, project executive for Kiewit Construction, said Wednesday morning. "It also marks the beginning of starting the specialized finishes for the building."

Kuehn said the building, at 13th and Douglas Streets, is on schedule to open next October.

The $90 million Holland Center, which will be operated by the Omaha Performing Arts Society, will include a 2,000-seat concert hall, a recital hall and a courtyard designed for outdoor performances.

As part of the topping-off festivities, more than 200 people involved with the center, including Kiewit workers, officials and musicians from the Omaha Symphony and members of the arts society, were to sign the structure's highest beam.

The 9-foot beam was to be hooked to a crane and hoisted more than 80 feet above ground level to the building's highest point, the center of the concert hall. A small pine tree and an American flag were to be anchored atop.

"The tree is a symbol that the construction has proceeded well without injury," said Joan Squires, president of the society.

The flag represents progress, innovation, patriotism and respect for construction workers.

Over the next few months, workers will install the glass on the exterior of the building that surrounds the courtyard, Kuehn said.

They also will install the glass in the lobby, which will look onto the Gene Leahy Mall.

Glass and zinc finishes on the outside of the building will be completed. Workers also will cast a limestone finish on the outside of the concert hall.




Construction workers are reflected on the west wall of the Holland Performing Arts Center by a waterproofing material that is installed under the zinc finish.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Yes, I just saw it yesterday. It's looking quite impressive.

I have to say, I LOVE the building materials of this project. Stainless steal, glass, and OXIDIZED ZINC!!! How awesome is that!

[omahahawk]

It will be an oustanding venue and a great place to see the OSO. Although, I don't necessarily get how they plan on only have 2000 seats in the main hall. I think I saw that was about 600 less than the Orpheum and every time I've seen the OSO there it was a full house.

[nativeomahan]

This will be an outstanding addition to the city's cultural scene. It is built to compliment, not duplicate, other venues. That is why the size of it's halls are unique to Omaha. The symphony will move to the Holland, allowing for more theatrical productions to be booked at the Orpheum.

[omahahawk]

My point exactly. I think it will be a great hall too, though maybe a little small in the main room. I dunno, will see.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Exactly, guys. I personally think 2,000 seats is too small, as well. However, that's not to diminish the value of the building to Omaha as a landmark and a venue. It's important to remember, as others have mentioned, that this building is not "replacing" the Orpheum, but rather adding to Omaha's cultural offerings. In that way, it's useless to compare it to the Orpheum.

On the positive side, it will guarantee more sold out performances. I hope ticket prices don't go up though!

[DTO Luv]

I was by it the other night. It's going to look fantastic when is done and lit up at night.

[eomaha]

2,000 seats is plenty... I don't know what symphony concerts anyone else has been going to... but I rarely see the Orpheum filled to capacity at the events I've regularly attended. What's more... this is more seats than KC's proposed concert hall will have ... and considerably more than other much larger cities by proportion.

Bottom line... this is a world class center which will serve Omaha well for decades to come.

[almighty_tuna]

I think it isn't tall enough. It should be like that Kodak Theatre in L.A.

[eomaha]

I should have known height would come in at some point.