Gene Leahy Mall

Researcher · Post by **Researcher** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 8:45 pm

Hello, I am currently researching the decline and redevelopment of urban cores of American cities, and cannot seem to find any information on what used to occupy the Gene Leahy Mall in the past. Does anyone know what used to be there? Thanks!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:31 am

wide variety of business blocks. I don't really remember.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:28 am

Hi and welcome!

What are you doing your research for?

I'm guessing you're not in Omaha. I was going to say, you should check out the Bostwick-Frohardt photo collection at the Durham Museum.

Here's the website for the collection:
http://www.historicomaha.com/dwhmpics.htm

Interestingly enough, the photo featured at the top is showing exactly where the Leahy Mall would be (on the right) looking west from 11th and Farnam. Interestingly and sadly, virtually nothing in that photo remains today.

joeglow · Post by **joeglow** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:37 am

StreetsOfOmaha wrote: Interestingly and sadly, virtually nothing in that photo remains today.

Interesting? Â Yes. Â Sad? Â No way.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:48 pm

Um, yeah, actually it's extremely sad and tragic that all of our city's heritage prior to the 1980s has been completely decimated along this stretch.

NovakOmaha · Post by **NovakOmaha** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:53 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:Um, yeah, actually it's extremely sad and tragic that all of our city's heritage prior to the 1980s has been completely decimated along this stretch.

It was the 70's and most 0f the land where the mall was built was either vacant, parking lots or small buildings that were in poor condition. Â .

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:32 pm

Does that make it any less sad and tragic? If anything, those are just more chapters of the tragic story.

Also, I'm referring to both sides of the block looking from 11th Street West on Farnam. That includes the Gene Leahy Mall, conceptualized in the 1970s and constructed up through the 80s, and the Landmark Center complex, which was completed in the late 80s/early 90s.

S33 · Post by **S33** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:07 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:Does that make it any less sad and tragic? If anything, those are just more chapters of the tragic story.

Also, I'm referring to both sides of the block looking from 11th Street West on Farnam. That includes the Gene Leahy Mall, conceptualized in the 1970s and constructed up through the 80s, and the Landmark Center complex, which was completed in the late 80s/early 90s.

I'm of the mindset that landmarks, which you choose to save and worship throughout a given period of time, should be carefully chosen. I will concede that downtown was royally raped and pillaged of it's architecture and transportation, as they knew it then.

But I also think that many of the structures had been let decay to the point where private development would never have worked, so we get what we get.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:25 pm

I pretty much agree with both statements, which factors into why we've proved to be such a lame culture.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:02 pm

Right, because if all those buildings were still around today, they would still house Anna Wilson's 2,000 prostitutes... Â :roll:

I'm not saying the people making those decisions didn't have their reasons at the time (they always do), but you see, that is still all part of the embarrassing tragedy of America: that we let our cities sink so low in the first place.

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:34 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:Right, because if all those buildings were still around today, they would still house Anna Wilson's 2,000 prostitutes... :roll:

I'm not saying the people making those decisions didn't have their reasons at the time (they always do), but you see, that is still all part of the embarrassing tragedy of America: that we let our cities sink so low in the first place.

You're acting like it was only in America. London back in the day was trash too. Heck, many English people considered it to be a tumor growing and consuming the country. Ironically, suburbs were born in England because people wanted to get away from London.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:35 pm

I suppose you're referring to Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City movement. While many early 20th Century suburbs were inspired by the idea, it was hardly the invention of suburbs, and certainly not the suburbs we know today.

To feel a certain way about the city is one thing, but the utter abandonment and wholesale buldozing of cities in America is really only matched in the UK by the destruction brought by the Nazis during World War II.

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:17 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:I suppose you're referring to Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City movement. While many early 20th Century suburbs were inspired by the idea, it was hardly the invention of suburbs, and certainly not the suburbs we know today.

To feel a certain way about the city is one thing, but the utter abandonment and wholesale buldozing of cities in America is really only matched in the UK by the destruction brought by the Nazis during World War II.

That was an interesting article in Nat Geo eh?

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:08 am

I have no idea what you're talking about.

S33 · Post by **S33** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:44 am

lol'z @ the awkwardness...

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:01 pm

...and again...

S33 · Post by **S33** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:31 pm

lol'z at the awkwardnesses.

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:05 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:...and again...

Ohh.... National Geographic just did an article about cities. That guy was included in it.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:33 am

Oh, I see. Yeah, I know about him through academic work, not National Geographic. That sounds like an interesting article, though. Is that what you were referencing with your comments? I'd love to see the article if there's a link out there somewhere.

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:39 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:Oh, I see. Yeah, I know about him through academic work, not National Geographic. That sounds like an interesting article, though. Is that what you were referencing with your comments? I'd love to see the article if there's a link out there somewhere.

Here you go:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/ ... unzig-text

GetUrban · Post by **GetUrban** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:28 pm

Good article for people who frequent this forum to read....it will give you an idea of where people pursuing (or who have achieved) higher education in Urban Planning are coming from. The answers to how cities should grow isn't as simple as most think, whether you favor living in high-density or suburban sprawl, or neither.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:43 pm

Thanks for posting that, Axel.

And thanks for that comment, GetUrban. Really.

After reading the article, I have to say, it is a really excellent glimpse at planning history and gives a bit of an idea of where the field of planning currently finds itself. There are gems of wisdom throughout.

A couple interesting notes:

Yes, as the article mentions at the end, Ebenezer Howard did take a stab at homesteading in Nebraska.

I didn't realize Peter Hall was still alive and I'm delighted to see him featured in this article. His book, Cities of Tomorrow, was one of the main texts of my planning history and theory class. I highly recommend it as he writes beautifully and is eminently knowledgeable on the subject matter.

I was also happy to see my urban guru James Howard Kunstler mentioned. He's the guy who called Atlanta "a pulsating slime mold."

And finally, he was not mentioned, but if anyone here found this article interesting, I recommend James C. Scott's book Seeing Like a State. I can't overstate it's brilliance and it is no exaggeration to say that it will completely and irreversibly change the way you see the world to the point where you won't even be able to imagine that there was a time before you read the book where you were so in the dark about the reality that surrounds us.