I Got Shoes, You Got Shoes
by Ken Mayer
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The New York Life Building – Alive and Well
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I haven’t bought shoes in over 10 years. No, I’m not going barefoot. I just started buying top quality shoes because I believe in the wisdom of a simple phrase – Quality is Economy.
Many years ago I started selecting footwear that was well made, but expensive, because I found that the cheap shoes I had been buying wore out more quickly. The cobbler couldn’t fix them because of their poor construction and shoddy materials.
It occurred to me that if I paid $150 for a pair of shoes that they would last at least 3 times longer than a pair of $50 shoes, probably more, because they could be repaired. That has turned out to be true and then some. My cobbler thanked me.
We all got shoes, but I got sustainable shoes that not only look better, they feel better and, in the long run, cost less, too.
It seems to me that we suffer the shoe problem on a large scale these days. Our society is prone to a kind of vicious disloyalty to institutions and organizations that don’t pander to us with the lowest possible price. We are often myopic and unrealistic about the future, thinking only about our ability to make the next low monthly payment.
And yet, paying a little more to make sure things will last longer and work better has proven to be a wise strategy again and again. If you want shoes you can be proud of, you have to pay more for them and take care to keep them in good shape.
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| Omaha’s Old Post Office 1898-1966 |
Shoes have a lot in common with buildings. Quality is Economy. Witness the history of the New York Life Building at 17th and Farnam. Completed in 1889 at a cost of $750,000, it was built with massive masonry walls and designed by one of the day’s top architectural firms, McKim, Mead and White of New York City.
It was built to last. But it hasn’t served us for generations without Omaha institutions making sure that its sustainability was realized. Purchased in 1909 by the Omaha National Bank, it added a floor to the building in 1920 and added an outer court over the 2nd and 3rd levels in the 1940s to create additional office space.
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| Minne Lusa Pumping Station 1889-1970 |
By the 1970s the building faced destruction, but was purchased by Kutak Rock and renovated in 1977. Twenty-nine years later the law firm once again capitalized on the structure’s sustainable nature with another renovation even more extensive than the 1977 effort. New infrastructure systems have been installed, the atrium has been expanded, and even the exterior has been shined up.
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| Omaha’s Old City Hall 1890-1966 |
Perhaps more important, this renewal, designed by Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture, honors the principles of McKim, Mead & White—symmetry, proportionality, dignity and elegance.
It’s a shame that other Omaha buildings that were once equally sustainable didn’t fair as well, particularly public buildings. The old post office at 16th and Dodge, built in 1898, was destroyed in 1966; the Minne Lusa Pumping station of 1889 was lost in 1970; and the old city hall constructed in 1890 was razed in 1966.
It’s time we started thinking about how we build and the ability of what we build to be used and reused for a long time to come. Whether it’s our shoes or our buildings - Quality is Economy.
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