Omaha and Des Moines are very, very competitive. To me, it's almost an attitude of "What my sister gets...I get, too." When West Omaha got that new speckle-tiled NEB REAL ESTATE Building (on 169th & Dodge), West Des Moines got their speckle-tiled one, too -- although I like theirs better. And, maybe the Des Moines one came first, I don't know. Do you realize Des Moines has the SAME two 80's suburban office buildings we have sitting off I-680 in Old Mill, also sitting off their freeway in West Des Moines? I could prove it. It's the same exact designs. I was so suprised. I now realize those buildings are not "special" to Omaha.Garrett wrote:Because Omaha and Des Moines are very similar, so there's always that little competition. Similar to Kansas City v St. Louis, New York v Chicago, etc. It's a little rivalry, especially when you consider that we've followed distinctly similar patterns in development in recent years. If you want an interesting visual of this, compare the tallest buildings in Omaha to the tallest in Des Moines.RNcyanide wrote:I'd like to know why this competition matters.
And, I have to say, I fight a "Des Moines always does it better" mindset, because I'm from Omaha, and I ultimately root for it. However, I like Des Moines, and I feel it has a sharp sense of design -- maybe sharper than Omaha (at this point). To me, it has an advantage over Omaha in justifying architectural design that has some of the handsome accents & flair of the East, more than we do. So, we kinda get tugged here a bit more, between the traditional East and the contemporary West. You can see the "tug" in our new suburban home designs -- which Des Moines doesn't seem to have. If I were an architect here, I would feel the "tug" I'm talking about. I think the La Vista Conference Center buildings are a great example of design that works well here in Omaha -- design that is meeting somewhere in between what you see in Des Moines and Denver.
Wow, I love that new structure going up in Des Moines.