Design Standards

[bigredmed1]

Nicely put, Swedish Chef.

I have been to Rome twice, and most of that city, built in the last 40 years could be anywhere. I was in Havana in 2017, where an urban planner talked about it being the last virgin city. The oldest original city that hasn’t been skyscrapered to death (Shanghai), or strip malled to death (St Augustine and Santa Fe). Their problem is that the commies control the buildings exteriors. Their city is crumbling because roofs and structural walls are expensive and as they are no longer privately owned, there is no incentive to make these repairs. In our country, master carpenters and masons are rare, the repairs a lot of the old buildings need exceed journeyman tradesmen’s knowledge base and parts are hard to get. UNMC’s original buildings predate WW1, and are structural brick with cast iron plumbing. Even simple things like doors are crushingly expensive (a door to connect a nursing office to the floor, was $250,000 and had to be built by mining engineers because the wall was 6 feet think on the 6th of 9 floors.)

Much of our new buildings in Omaha are philanthropic (CU, Joslyn, NU, Holland, etc.). No one seems to want to donate to a repair fund to remodel an existing old building when they could put their name on a new Bauhaus Jr building.

Art in Omaha has earned (and I mean this) a deservedly bad rep. Welding pieces of metal at obtuse angles and then powder coating it blue or red is not really inspirational. Building scrap metal fountains that never actually worked and sticking them in front of one of our most critical access hospitals and bitching at anyone who didn’t like it and calling them names for their poor taste is a good way to put off 5000 workers who make enough money to support the arts, but now choose not to. Omaha’s declining performing arts scene further pushes people away from seeing art and design as part of a well lived life.

Finding a good design and sticking with it? Something that was done in Omaha schools through the early 20th century, now we have each new school being a one off design that probably has flaws and had we done it like before, we could find the flaws in #1 or 2, and avoid them in #3, 4, 5, etc. So taxpayers see bloated school costs and are further pushed away from design.

[ita]

I agree that the lack of great design is a national problem more than an Omaha one. Even the cities that were previously mentioned as pumping out great architecture - Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, Seattle, etc. - most of it is few and far between a lot of |expletive| with uninspired designs and no thought for urban design or street life.

Every other western nation and at least the capital cities of non-western nations are blowing us out of the water with architectural design and streetscaping. When international cities go to redevelop unutilized or underutilized sections of town as we have attempted to do locally with Aksarben or north Downtown, they produce districts, for example, like La Confluence in Lyon France:




...or Bispevika in Oslo, Norway:


I can think of similar large scale redevelopment projects in the US that are fine - Mission Bay in San Francisco, South Lake Union in Seattle, - but not spectacular. Only Hudson Yards in New York in my opinion has been as bold, innovative, and utilizes comprehensive planning and design as what you'd find elsewhere.

Thanks for showing us and mentioning some great examples. Speaking for myself, I really need to get out of Omaha and especially the U.S. more often! I haven’t been to Europe since the late 70’s, which makes me sad. You really have to experience great cities with all of your senses in person to realize the full effect. But it’s up to us to spread the word and demand better from our architects, planners, and ourselves, as some of you are doing here,

Thanks for the examples. It's interesting that all of these examples are taking advantage of waterfront. Granted these are ocean waterfronts, but our Riverfront is still underdeveloped and would be an amazing place to stick modern/interesting architecture. I would love to see Gallup's greenfield developed with something like the examples you presented; high density residential, with lots of patios and views of either the river and bluffs and downtown skyline, maybe some office and retail, more service oriented. If my estimates are correct, it's about 18 acres. That's double Lot B or the Civic Site. You can really do something big there. It could the front door to downtown from the airport and could showoff Omaha in an awesome way; well after you get past all the airport hotels, industrial buildings and jail, and aforementioned sharp steel art fixtures in Carter Lake, that is.

Riverfront Place is another one I would like to see filled up. There are a few lots still undeveloped, one right on the riverfront south of tower 2 and a couple lots west of Tower 2. I was thinking about this last night. Once Baby Bob is done and there is a more direct connection to North Downtown, could a nice hotel be built at Riverfront Plaza? I was thinking something with a ground floor retail, something simple like concessions (since there is nothing down there for food or drink) and maybe touristy stuff (Big Bob didn't show up on the most visited places, but it has to be up there). Get a nice top floor restaurant that would have really cool views all around. Rooftop bar and pool. I don't know. I like what's down there currently, but there is potential for additional infill that could really make our Riverfront standout and be an awesome place to live, work, stay.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

In my travels (9 states this year, plus México) I see lots of new construction projects. IMO the aesthetic quality of new construction in Omaha remains mired at the very bottom of the pack.

Completely agree. And comparing Omaha to other places in the US isn’t saying much. It’s so sad that Americans simply do not care about aesthetics anymore. Boring buildings, boring cars, boring furniture, boring clothing, awful art…

I really hate saying that.

When I go to other countries, I look at the buildings going up and always think, “That could never get built in the US.” Sigh.

But you’re right, Omaha is particularly bland-looking (but a great place to live overall). I have no clue why that is.

This is a topic I'm fascinated by and kinda fires me up. What happened to beautiful spaces and cityscapes? Is it the dynamism of a city that inspires great design (hence why NYC, Chicago, San Francisco had eras of fantastic design?), the geographic features of the region, or something deliberate on the part of the residents, and thus the type of residents that live in these places? And why now the general design and art malaise overall? I think it's plaguing most industrialized countries. I've traveled pretty widely, and for all the insane wealth we have now (relative to human history), I haven't seen one new "beautiful" space pop up anywhere. Maybe a couple small examples in Western Europe and Singapore, but that's about it.

I've put a lot of thought to this myself and wonder if we're really in such a design rut or if it is more a product of globalization where everyone is kind of doing the same thing and thus things seem boring and repetitive. A new skyscraper in Paris these days looks the same as a new skyscraper in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Mexico City whereas previously each of these cities had more distinct architectural vibes. Someone brought up cars and I think this is especially true with current car design. Many have stated how cars these days have boring designs. But if you compare today's models with models even 20 years ago, the difference is night and day in the level of intricacy of lighting, color, and materials integration and how they come together to create a sense of personality for the car. But the contrast in how this is executed among manufacturers is smaller than it used to be. Anymore, someone comes up with an idea that advances design and everyone else more or less copies it with little variation.

I've been of the mind that cities like Omaha who lack inspiring topographies (no mountains, lakes, oceanfronts, etc.) should make up for their relative lack of natural beauty by creating their own beauty. More emphasis was placed on this in earlier eras when aesthetics and appearances were more highly valued (I mean, look at how people dressed day-to-day versus now). But instead cities like Omaha have resigned themselves to blandness. It's like we feel we don't deserve to surround ourselves with beauty; or, even worse, we don't know how to create beauty.

Indeed, which is quite frustrating, especially considering that many of the world's finest cities outside the US are located on topographies not unlike the midwest. The rural spaces outside Vienna, Paris, Berlin might as well be Indiana. It's crazy to me the and design products and solutions that architects and urban designers in the US have come up with compared to European and Asian counterparts, especially when the feat is particularly challenging. I can only imagine if someone came to a design firm in the US and said "I want to develop a site that's only 1.5 acres and I want retail space and also a parking garage and a loooot of green space.. oh and it's on a hill." I can only imagine the |expletive| that a lot of US firms would come up with. Portugese firm Balonas and Menano on the other hand said "Segure minha cerveja"...



Or "I am redeveloping a building built in the 1890s in the middle of a very dense city into a hotel. It must have ground floor retail. It also needs a parking garage built into it, not adjacent, and, in keeping with the architectural integrity of the building, no one should be able to see evidence of the existence of this garage at all." I'm not sure what many US firms would think to do under this scenario, but whoever designed the Hotel 1898 in Barcelona figured it out. I was eating at a tapas place next to this hotel when someone in a Volvo pulls up in front of the ballards in the pics below. I was confused what their intentions were, especially given the presence of the outdoor cafe (visible in the second image). After a moment, the bollards retreated below the sidewalk and the Volvo drove up on to the terrace to what I thought was a fog-glass window into the hotel, between the second and third sconce in the first pic below. Again confusing. But it was not a window at all. It retracted and revealed itself as a garage door that led to a subterranean garage. This blew my mind in how I thought about the concept of masking. Why are such things so impossible in the US?!




Speaking of parking, I think many often view European city centers as devoid of parking compared to US cities. And while true that there is not the amount of parking in many European city centers as we have, in my experience parking is still very plentiful. Europeans are just much, much better at hiding it or integrating it into thoughtful design. Same with highways. Many European and Australian cities have highways that go into the city center like they do in the US, but their highways are berried or heavily masked to minimize their presence. There's even a highway between the Trocadero Gardens and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but it's not immediately obvious. They're more integrated into the urban fabric rather than trampling all over it.

[Garrett]

We almost had some fairly different architecture here in Omaha. Go back to the Capitol District thread and look at the first page, where there are pictures and comparisons of the 3 different proposals, and look at the Nexus/Noddle design. That would have been a bit unique.

[ita]

Out of all of the local architectural firms in town, is there one or a few that have a portfolio that reflects designs that could/should be adopted in Omaha, but are not?

[GetUrban]

Out of all of the local architectural firms in town, is there one or a few that have a portfolio that reflects designs that could/should be adopted in Omaha, but are not?

I would say right now Tack Architects is right at the top, looking at their work. The great photography helps too. They have done a lot of work in Omaha.

https://tackarch.com/our-work/

HDR, Leo Daly, BVH, APMA, Avant Architects, are notable, Eldorado out of KC-Portland is one to watch too, when they do work in Omaha. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

[ita]

Out of all of the local architectural firms in town, is there one or a few that have a portfolio that reflects designs that could/should be adopted in Omaha, but are not?

I would say right now Tack Architects is right at the top, looking at their work. The great photography helps too. They have done a lot of work in Omaha.

https://tackarch.com/our-work/

HDR, Leo Daly, BVH, APMA, Avant Architects, are notable, Eldorado out of KC-Portland is one to watch too, when they do work in Omaha. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

Wow, I didn't know Tack was behind the original 1416 Dodge single tower design. I really like that one!

Holland Basham's plans for 1416 Dodge is fine two with the two tower, but shared pedestal. They are involved in several notable projects, but if you go through their portfolio, especially for the residential multifamily and office, it kind of looks too same-y.

Some of the more exciting projects, in my opinion, have outside architectural firms attached. Steelhouse has Ennead and the modern art extension has Snohetta. Someone made a comment in another thread about wanting to see more national real estate developers take a crack at Omaha. Maybe we would see more divergent architectural design. The Mercantile will be a good test for that theory, though it might prove it wrong, at least with the initial residential building. Based on renderings it will be very reminiscent of the big box apartment buildings that have sprouted up all over the city (and nation, for that matter). Maybe we will see something more ambitious when it comes to any office, hotel, or condos that end up at the development.

[Garrett]

Out of all of the local architectural firms in town, is there one or a few that have a portfolio that reflects designs that could/should be adopted in Omaha, but are not?

I would say right now Tack Architects is right at the top, looking at their work. The great photography helps too. They have done a lot of work in Omaha.

https://tackarch.com/our-work/

HDR, Leo Daly, BVH, APMA, Avant Architects, are notable, Eldorado out of KC-Portland is one to watch too, when they do work in Omaha. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

Wow, I didn't know Tack was behind the original 1416 Dodge single tower design. I really like that one!

Holland Basham's plans for 1416 Dodge is fine two with the two tower, but shared pedestal. They are involved in several notable projects, but if you go through their portfolio, especially for the residential multifamily and office, it kind of looks too same-y.

Some of the more exciting projects, in my opinion, have outside architectural firms attached. Steelhouse has Ennead and the modern art extension has Snohetta. Someone made a comment in another thread about wanting to see more national real estate developers take a crack at Omaha. Maybe we would see more divergent architectural design. The Mercantile will be a good test for that theory, though it might prove it wrong, at least with the initial residential building. Based on renderings it will be very reminiscent of the big box apartment buildings that have sprouted up all over the city (and nation, for that matter). Maybe we will see something more ambitious when it comes to any office, hotel, or condos that end up at the development.

I didn't notice all the additional details of Tack's 1416 Dodge design when the renders first came out, like the slant and the overhang.

[GetUrban]

Out of all of the local architectural firms in town, is there one or a few that have a portfolio that reflects designs that could/should be adopted in Omaha, but are not?

I would say right now Tack Architects is right at the top, looking at their work. The great photography helps too. They have done a lot of work in Omaha.

https://tackarch.com/our-work/

HDR, Leo Daly, BVH, APMA, Avant Architects, are notable, Eldorado out of KC-Portland is one to watch too, when they do work in Omaha. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

Wow, I didn't know Tack was behind the original 1416 Dodge single tower design. I really like that one!

Holland Basham's plans for 1416 Dodge is fine two with the two tower, but shared pedestal. They are involved in several notable projects, but if you go through their portfolio, especially for the residential multifamily and office, it kind of looks too same-y.

Some of the more exciting projects, in my opinion, have outside architectural firms attached. Steelhouse has Ennead and the modern art extension has Snohetta. Someone made a comment in another thread about wanting to see more national real estate developers take a crack at Omaha. Maybe we would see more divergent architectural design. The Mercantile will be a good test for that theory, though it might prove it wrong, at least with the initial residential building. Based on renderings it will be very reminiscent of the big box apartment buildings that have sprouted up all over the city (and nation, for that matter). Maybe we will see something more ambitious when it comes to any office, hotel, or condos that end up at the development.

I didn't notice all the additional details of Tack's 1416 Dodge design when the renders first came out, like the slant and the overhang.

Yeah, that Tack design for 1416 would be amazing if it happens. I’m not sure what the chances of that happening are. All of Tack’s projects just show some very innovative, yet restrained mastery of detailing in the selection and use of materials at all scales. Their projects photograph well as artistic compositions.

Holland Basham is another one to watch, since they’re in the process of rebranding and recruiting more design-oriented talent to be more competitive with other firms. They do a lot of developer-driven multi-family projects which by their nature need to keep construction costs down. But it will get to the point that newer projects will need to be more innovative to stand=out from the rest to attract new residents. It’s good when local firms team-up with national and international firms to bring in new ideas into the mix.