Omaha By Design: Omaha, Only Better

by Ken Mayer

One of my fondest holiday memories is of Christmas morning when we were allowed into the living room to see what Santa had brought. My dad spent a great deal of time and effort making sure we were thrilled. He would stay up all night setting up an enormous train set or building some kind of toy.

One of my favorites was a giraffe with an easel on its neck where I could sit and draw.

I didn’t know it at the time, but those gifts taught me the value of personal craftsmanship as applied to a relationship, even when something could have easily been purchased. To this day I believe in the power of that principle. I still make cookies from scratch for friends and family, and relish the irony of dropping off a box of those homemade sweets at my dentist’s office.

As I got older, I began to take note of craftsmanship. Grandpa and Grandma’s house had more of it than our house did. Downtown had more of it than the suburbs did.

I realized that what I appreciated was the architecture. Those old buildings with decorated windows, where I could ask Santa for a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun, became more about their craftsmanship than childhood nostalgia.

Sadly, our city’s track record of preserving that craftsmanship hasn’t been all that great. While it’s sometimes necessary to destroy in order to create, it seems to me we ought to think long and hard about how that destruction may disrespect craftsmanship.

Lately, there have been some signs of improvement. In some cases, buildings have been taken down, but remnants of the craftsmanship have been preserved. The First National Tower uses parts of the Medical Arts Building façade (at right), and the entrance to the park at 14^th and Dodge utilizes some of the old Omaha World-Herald Building (at far right).

I’m not going to pretend I like these architectural petting zoos, I’d rather see the buildings reused, but maybe they do indicate a step in the right direction; a step toward recognizing the value of architectural craftsmanship.

We need more projects like the plans for the so-called “Piano Building” on the northwest corner of 49^th and Dodge. Developer Matt Dougherty and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture plan to reveal the characteristically Dundee, Tudor-style exterior of the Dundee Manor Hotel. A restaurant, real estate office, title company and chiropractor have signed on along with Dougherty’s insurance agency to occupy storefronts at street level.

Next time we hear about the prospect of destroying one of our old buildings, it might be worth thinking about what the holidays would be like had we not preserved and reused Union Station, now the Durham Museum. Three quarters of a century ago, the Union Pacific began an Omaha tradition that continues to this day. Generations have enjoyed the huge tree, the wonderful craftsmanship of the building and our relationship to it.

Let’s not lose any more holiday memories.

Happy New Year.