St Mary's Square is a $40 million overhaul of the intersection of Howard/St. Mary's/17th streets. West-bound traffic can take Jackson street, just to the south. Access to the various parking lots and garages remain intact
Features:
Small water fountain, visible along 3 sightlines
Increased foliage on the longer sides of the Flatiron building
Increased seating area on the north side of the Flatiron building
Centered square - a big tree anchored with park benches (the tilted square in the middle)
Small collection of playground equipment at the 17th Street north entrance (westside of the OPPD garage)
Development potential for lots along Jackson and the MUD parking lot/garage
Covered drop off in front of the Magnolia Hotel (the lower of the two yellow arrows)
Last edited by nebraska on Wed Dec 27, 2017 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
nebraska wrote:Just going to throw some ideas out there.
St Mary's Square is a $40 million overhaul of the intersection of Howard/St. Mary's/17th streets. West-bound traffic can take Jackson street, just to the south. Access to the various parking lots and garages remain intact
Features:
Small water fountain, visible along 3 sightlines
Increased foliage on the longer sides of the Flatiron building
Increased seating area on the north side of the Flatiron building
Centered square - a big tree anchored with park benches (the titled square in the middle)
Small collection of playground equipment at the 17th Street north entrance (westside of the OPPD garage)
Development potential for lots along Jackson and the MUD parking lot/garage
Covered drop off in front of the Magnolia Hotel (the lower of the two yellow arrows)
I'm impressed. I like it. Omaha needs more small parks/plazas like this in the core as it starts to get denser.
GrandpaaSmucker wrote:Seems like the Flat Iron kind of sheds some of its cool if those streets are not running right next to it. Those streets are part of it.
None of these designs will be perfect, I'll admit. In this case, I think the wow factor of the Flatiron is better enjoyed at a slower pace, such as pedestrian modes. Drive by and it's cool for maybe 3 seconds.
This is fun, I wish we had more threads like this.
My spin : First, I think St. Mary's should stay open, but should go down to a two lane, bidirectional road with parallel parking, and wider sidewalks. Do the same with Leavenworth. Get rid of these commuter streets.
Then I think you close off Howard between 17th and 18th and make it a pedestrian mall.
Then have a separate park on the south side of St. Mary's. I just like St. Mary's personally. It's one of the few non-north-south roads in Omaha and it is pretty well used.
I do really like the southwest portion of Downtown in general. It is sparse, untapped and relatively unknown, and I think it has a lot of potential.
Busguy2010 wrote:This is fun, I wish we had more threads like this.
My spin : First, I think St. Mary's should stay open, but should go down to a two lane, bidirectional road with parallel parking, and wider sidewalks. Do the same with Leavenworth. Get rid of these commuter streets.
Then I think you close off Howard between 17th and 18th and make it a pedestrian mall.
Then have a separate park on the south side of St. Mary's. I just like St. Mary's personally. It's one of the few non-north-south roads in Omaha and it is pretty well used.
I do really like the southwest portion of Downtown in general. It is sparse, untapped and relatively unknown, and I think it has a lot of potential.
You could make St. Mary's a shared space road, with limited signage and free crossing.
The Dewey Boardwalk is a literal board-walk along the perimeter of Dewey Park, which is adjacent to the Midtown Crossing area. Estimates for the City to put in the boardwalk and observation platform might be $25 million. Redevelopment of the properties at 33rd and Harney might cost $40 million.
Features
1/2 mile of boardwalk (note the hill extends down from the boardwalk, thus giving a great view of the park below)
observation platform (the blue circle) is elevated about 18' above the park, and covered.
stairs leading from the boardwalk down to park level (darker yellow just to the right of the blue circle)
eliminate Jackson street from Turner to 34th, and reconfigure how 34th joins Turner Blvd.
eliminate Dewey Ave between 33rd and Harney
redevelop the Spielbound-Storage facility-house-apartment to now be 4 story building, 7 story building, 3 story storage facility, and 3 new houses
Spielbound will enjoy increased space on 2 floors of the 7 story building, and 2 new retail neighbors
Storage facility improved loading dock
3 houses now have private, gated entry from 33rd street
Busguy2010 wrote:This is fun, I wish we had more threads like this.
My spin : First, I think St. Mary's should stay open, but should go down to a two lane, bidirectional road with parallel parking, and wider sidewalks. Do the same with Leavenworth. Get rid of these commuter streets.
Then I think you close off Howard between 17th and 18th and make it a pedestrian mall.
Then have a separate park on the south side of St. Mary's. I just like St. Mary's personally. It's one of the few non-north-south roads in Omaha and it is pretty well used.
I do really like the southwest portion of Downtown in general. It is sparse, untapped and relatively unknown, and I think it has a lot of potential.
I mostly agree. Too much of the original street grid has already been closed-off since the 1960's. We should be opening back up more grid if anything. But the right-of-ways are generally too wide. People always seem to be thinking about circulation on east-west streets while they continue to close-off north-south streets. Keeping 17th open all the way up to north downtown is important. although I'd like to see it become two-way. I'd like to see 15th street opened back up from Capitol to Chicago. Anyway...
I do like the idea of a small park south of the flat iron if St Mary's and Howard can stay open, but maybe narrowed-down a bit.
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings" ...and then they were gone.
GetUrban wrote:Too much of the original street grid has already been closed-off. We should be opening back up more grid if anything. Keeping 17th open all the way up to north downtown is important. although I'd like to see it become two-way. I'd like to see 15th street opened back up from Capitol to Chicago.
I agree with you on 15th and 17th. What are they key north-south streets downtown? 10th, 13th and 14th are obviously pretty important because they do run all the way through downtown and have interstate access, as well as serving the entertainment district.
Beyond that, none of the roads really go through uninterrupted. 17th would be the one I feel would be the next most important street to focus on. Make it two way and somehow address the interstate on-ramp so we can make that road uninterrupted. I wish 15th was reconnected, but I feel it's importance has diminished and they aren't focusing on that as a main road, as you can see up by Cuming, it is a lot more pedestrian focused with Kiewit.
19th and 20th will probably be pretty important in the future.
Omaha's new Civic Center is a mega development that will replace everything between Cass->Dodge Streets and 72nd->78th Streets. Approximate cost might be $1.5B in public and $1.5B in private developments.
The City of Omaha and Douglas County can sell all their downtown properties to help offset the cost.
Features
The Oval is a 3-lane one-way ring road that goes underneath the Civic Plaza. It provides access to the various parking garages under each of the major buildings.
The orangish areas are plazas.
The tealish buildings are all public development: city and county offices, new Police and Fire HQs, library, museum, courts, and an auditorium. Target will have to lease space above a 3 story garage (1500 spots) and next to an apartment highrise (but maybe we can get Target to move to the east side of 72nd?)
The existing garage could gain a level or two, maybe. Will have 4-6 basketball courts on top.
Between the Target and Library is a park with a new Crossroads Transit Center. This will be the new primary OMetro hub, rather than downtown. Also, it's time to start adding routes past I680 that are useful.
The purplish buildings are all private development: 24 lots with pedestrian-friendly entrances. The two lots on the plaza could easily be 20 story hotels overlooking the plaza. Other buildings are 5-10 floors, kinda of like AkSarBen's development.
The Center Park has 8 two-story buildings perfect for restaurants
76th is now a nice boulevard
The lots to the west and east of Little Papio Creek are called Cole Creek Development. Approximately 9 lots to be sold as residential mid/high-rises, 10-20 floors each. Being part of a Civic Center, the affordable housing minimum in this area is 33%.
The new forced-downtown was originally inspired by the downtown Virginia Beach, VA development (google map) or the smaller counterpart in Newport News, VA (google maps)
Your plan tears out perfectly good buildings (the gym up there on Cass being one). Your plan has a huge boulevard that connects nothing (and is actually a dead end at Cass?). 76th/Rose Blumkin Dr is used by a lot of people, but you just have it pretty much as it is now.
Keep the gym. Add more trails and bridges around it. Swap your bouelvard and 76th around.
With all those new 10 story buildings you will probably need to reconfigure the intersections at 85th/Cass and also at Dodge/Cass. There's going to be a lot more traffic. Might also need to build/expand/remodel a school or two in the area.
Also your new plan better have a Chuck E Cheese somewhere
I do think the Asian market plaza and everything to the west of there should remain unchanged through any redevelopment of Crossroads. Don't know why you'd want to tear down a completely healthy retail district to put in what looks like a housing project highrise complex.
Busguy2010 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:14 pm
I do think the Asian market plaza and everything to the west of there should remain unchanged through any redevelopment of Crossroads. Don't know why you'd want to tear down a completely healthy retail district to put in what looks like a housing project highrise complex.