Final Funding Sought for Pedestrian Bridge Plaza/Park
May 01, 2008
Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a continuing series of entries from the first Omaha Catalogue of Urban Design Philanthropy, a compendium of strategic giving opportunities that focus on the city’s natural and built environments. The Omaha Catalogue was published in December 2007 by Omaha by Design and the Omaha Community Foundation. It has attracted donations from Omaha’s philanthropic community at both the foundation and individual level, including a $10,000 gift to the Big Garden and a $25,000 gift to the South 24th Street Tree of Life Project. For more information on how to donate to a project, contact Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design, or Sara Boyd, vice president of the Omaha Community Foundation, at 402.342.3458.
When walkers, joggers and bikers enter Omaha via the Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge in late November 2008, they’ll be greeted by a one-of-a-kind destination that offers something for everyone.
Plans are taking shape for the Pedestrian Bridge Plaza – the riverfront area on the Omaha side of the river. The plaza, sure to become popular with locals as well as tourists, will include an interactive water plaza, a unique public art sculpture and a play area designed to educate children about the Missouri River environment.
The water plaza, which will encourage play, will feature individual pulsating water jets. Each jet, as well as the entire water plaza area, will be lighted at night for effect and use.
Artist and architect Sei Wantanbee’s dramatic “Fiber Wave” art display will frame the water plaza, adding an important component to Omaha’s civic identity. The display consists of 150 carbon fiber shafts, each of which is approximately five meters tall. Installed in ordered rows, the carbon fiber material allows the individual shafts to wave in the wind, mimicking the graceful movement of grasses stirred by a breeze.
The play area, tentatively named “River Critters,” will feature climbable sculptures of the pallid sturgeon, the piping plover and the least tern, three of the Missouri River’s endangered species.
The plaza will be located mostly inside the sloped circular walkway that’s part of the bridge. Walkways that connect to the existing Omaha river trail system will lead users through a plaza to an entrance stairway. That stairway will take them to the top of the sloped green space inside the ramp curve.
The plaza will be accessible by bus, as a stop will be located near the ramp. Visitors will be able park at the National Park Service building after hours on weekdays and any time during the weekend.
During the past several months, design work has continued on the bridge plaza/park. In late April 2008, contractor bids were received, and the final cost of the project in its entirety is $1.75 million. The fund-raising effort, led by Back to the River and the City of Omaha, has raised all but $75,000 of the project’s total cost, thanks to contributions from 13 individuals, corporations and foundations. Funds for the remaining portion of the project are currently sought.