Midtown Crossing is the 2011 recipient of the Laurels Award. The honor is presented annually to an individual, organization or business that has made significant contributions to the creation of great public spaces in the metro.

Mutual of Omaha and Turner Park have served the midtown community for decades. In 2007, ground was broken on Midtown Crossing, Mutual of Omaha’s million-square-foot mixed use development project that united the two to form Omaha’s first Civic Place District. Today, the development features condominiums, apartments, retail, restaurants, a revitalized Turner Park, a dine-in movie theatre, workout facilities and more. The project is one of the first in the nation to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s pilot Neighborhood Development Certification program.

“Midtown Crossing is about more than big buildings with great residences, dining, entertainment and shopping. It’s about making a difference and giving back to a community that has been so good to us for over a century. It’s about providing a surge of fresh excitement and energy. It’s about bring ‘town’ back to Midtown. These things are the greatest reward,” said Ken Cook, president of East Campus Realty, the Mutual of Omaha subsidiary that owns Midtown Crossing.

The luncheon will also recognize the 2011 recipients of Omaha by Design’s Green Leaf, Civic Leaf and Neighborhood Leaf awards, which were presented previously.

The 2011 Green Leaf, which honors an individual, organization or business that has worked to preserve and enhance the metropolitan area’s natural setting and public park system, was awarded to Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. Among the park’s amenities is the HDR Prairie Garden, a series of four larger gardens and 23 smaller demonstration beds that showcase 28 species of native plants and grasses.

The 2011 Civic Leaf, which honors an individual, organization or business that has worked to define and improve the metropolitan area’s civic places and public image, was awarded to Anne Trumble for “Stored Potential.” The art installation transformed a massive set of concrete silos no longer in use into the launching point for an ongoing community discussion about land use, agriculture, food and transportation.

The 2011 Neighborhood Leaf, which honors an individual, organization or business that has worked to preserve and enhance the metropolitan area’s residential neighborhoods, was awarded to the Metcalfe-Harrison Neighborhood Association and the Country Club Community Council for their collaborative efforts to improve Metcalfe Park.

For more information about the luncheon or the awards program, contact Omaha by Design at 402.554.4010 or info@omahabydesign.org.

The pickers call it a honey hole, a place where all manner of good things can be found.  During a holiday gathering at the Durham Museum, I was chatting with a staff member about their collection of photographs and discovered that one of Omaha’s honey holes has just gotten even sweeter.

I was thrilled to learn they have begun the process of digitizing the collection, and many of the images have recently been posted online at http://www.durhammuseum.org/experience/photo-archive.aspx.

I thought it would be fun to have a look back at how we have used public spaces in Omaha through the lenses of some of our city’s finest shutterbugs (click on the photos to enlarge).

Should you care to purchase a print of any of these or thousands of other Omaha images, I’ve included the accession numbers. The images are available from the Durham for a small fee.

Numbers that begin with “BF” are from the Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, owned by KM3TV, The Durham Museum.  “RP” indicates the shot is from the Robert Paskach Collection, copyright Omaha World-Herald, The Durham Museum.

photo 1
A long-standing rite of spring. Adelaide Fogg Dancing School four charmers in the park, May 1926. (BF1713-007)

photo 2
Brave bicyclists out for a ride. Omaha Wheel Club in Fairmont Park around 1888. (BF14-289A)

photo 3
Curling? In Omaha? Who knew? Curling at Miller Park on the day after Christmas, 1926. (BF7-803)

photo 4
A time when one dressed for a day in the park. Ladies in Hanscom Park around 1911. (BF3-365)

photo 5
Before the Holiday Lights Festival. Aksarben Parade Electric Parade in late September 1954. (RP-486-06)

photo 6
Look, Ma – no YouTube! Dog rides toboggan down Elmwood Park Hill. (RP-321-01)

photo 7
Pet parade. Super Duper Market, North 30th Street. (RP-109-03)

photo 8
Swingin’ in the park with the Nat Towles Band, August 1939. Dance band, Krug Park Pavilion, now the site of Gallagher Park. (BF5645-004)

Projects Page Redesigned

Omaha by Design has redesigned the projects page of its web site at www.omahabydesign.org/projects. The page now serves as a directory of projects that fall under the organization’s four areas of emphasis – Green Omaha, Civic Omaha, Neighborhood Omaha and Environment Omaha. For more information about any of the projects listed, call 402.554.4010 or email info@omahabydesign.org.

daOMA Film Event

design alliance OMAha (daOMAHA), in partnership with Film Streams and the Omaha Creative Institute, will host a screening of Jacques Tati’s “Play Time” Thursday, Jan. 12, at 7:00pm at Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater. The film will be followed by a discussion with Leven and Betts, whose Chelsea Penthouse Project was inspired by the film. Tickets are $9 for adults, $7 for seniors, students, teachers, military and members of daOMA and the Omaha Creative Institute, and $4.50 for members of Film Streams. For more information about daOMA, visit www.designallianceomaha.org.

Placemakers Exhibition Opens

Placemakers, which opens Friday, Jan. 13, at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, brings together nine artists engaged in interventionist and transformative acts that make places. Working in multiple media, each artist occupies and re-imagines a specific site. The exhibition includes seven commissions of new works and spans 12,000 square feet of the Bemis Center’s first floor and expands beyond the gallery’s interior. The Jan. 13 opening reception runs from 6:00 to 9:00pm, and the exhibition runs through March 31. For more information, visit www.bemiscenter.org.

Transportation Advocacy Meeting

Mode Shift Omaha is organizing a series of transportation advocacy coalition meetings to continue the conversation about creating a shared advocacy agenda for expanding transportation options and choice in the Omaha area. The next meeting will be held Monday, Jan. 23, at 6:30pm at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service, Room 132D. The agenda will include:

• An overview of the funding process for local, regional and state transportation projects and how policy is made related to planning, funding and implementing transportation projects.
• An overview of existing policies and plans at the local, regional and state level supportive or not of active and public transportation.
• Beginning conversation about policies and practices we want to jointly influence/change.
• Future meetings and next steps.

For more information, contact Mode Shift Omaha at info@modeshiftomaha.org.

Next UDRB Meeting

The Urban Design Review Board will not meet in January. The next meeting is set for Thursday, Feb. 16, at 3:00pm in the Jesse Lowe Conference Room at the Omaha/Douglas Civic Center. The seven-member board provides recommendations to the city’s planning director on issues related to urban design site plan reviews. The board meets upon request of the planning director and/or applicant to review and clarify urban design site plan review findings. For more information, visit http://www.cityofomaha.org/planning/boards/urban-design-review-board.

Work – Sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr.

Artist – Littleton Alston

Owner – City of Omaha

Completed – 2004

Medium – Cast Bronze

Dimensions – 11’ x 4’ x 6’

Description – Sculpture, metal

Location – Omaha/Douglas Civic Center, 1819 Farnam St.

Each January, cities across the country celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Omaha pays homage to the civil rights leader each day of the year via a larger-than-life sculpture on the grounds of the Omaha/Douglas Civic Center.

The work, created by Omaha artist Littleton Alston, was paid for via private donations raised by Mayor Mike Fahey. It depicts King holding out his hands and is inscribed with a quote. The figure appears to be standing on a mountain and looking toward the future. The sculpture is one of 12 works by Alston currently featured on www.publicartomaha.org. For more information about the artist, visit www.alstonsculpture.com.

Send us your photo next to this sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. or any other work featured on www.publicartomaha.org and we’ll publish it on www.omahabydesign.org. If you include this sign in your photo, we’ll send you a Public Art Omaha button or magnet (Midwest Photo Pro, Kayla Meyer and Sarah Tracey did). Email your photos to info@omahabydesign.org. Be sure to include the name or names of the people in the photo and the date it was taken. Questions? Call 402.554.4010.

If you’re interested in preserving or expanding Omaha’s public art for future generations, please consider donating a work of art or contributing to the Preserve Omaha Public Art Fund. For more information, visit http://www.publicartomaha.org/pages/get_involved/donate.

“Businesses interested in receiving green certification must self-certify that they are conducting certain fundamental environmental practices to help reduce their environmental impacts,” said Rock Yoder, co-chair of the Green Omaha Coalition’s Green Business Council. Examples include installing low flow faucet aerators and replacing incandescent light bulbs with high efficiency bulbs. Program participants are also encouraged to improve their respective environmental performances over time and develop environmental programs and goals that create accountability for progress and achievement.

Businesses can choose from two levels of certification – Green and Emerald. The Green level requires the participant to meet all of the program’s mandatory requirements. The Emerald level requires the participant to go beyond the requirements by completing a specified number of elite requirements.

There is no fee for the program, Yoder said, but participants are encouraged to become members of the Green Omaha Coalition (GOC). Annual organizational memberships start at $100.

Those interested in pursuing green certification can begin the process by completing an online certification application at http://www.greenomahacoalition.org/councils/green-business/green-business-certification/ (choose from either the owner or tenant application). Once completed and approved by the appropriate company representative, the application is submitted to the GOC’s Green Business Council Leadership Committee for approval. After approval has been granted, the company will be provided with marketing materials to help support recognition among the community for their efforts. They also have the option to provide their certification information online for visitors to view.

“Our green certification can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors and save money by reducing your use of energy, water and other resources,” Yoder said. “It will also help you create a healthier and more comfortable work place and connect you with a network of other businesses working to become environmentally responsible.”

For more information about the Green Business Certification program, contact Yoder at ryoder@mail.unomaha.edu. For more information about the GOC’s membership structure, visit http://www.greenomahacoalition.org/membership.

Photo by Andrew Forsman, a student at Benson High School.

The students are back from winter break. The cameras and tripods have been ordered. Thanks to the support of 144 community backers who contributed funds ranging from $5 to $5,000, The Teen Voices Project is under way at Benson High School (BHS).

The project, conceived by Jerred Zegelis and brought to life by Kickstarter, is turning a group of students into documentarians who will be capturing what life in North Omaha is like today.

“The students my school serves live mostly in the North Omaha area,” writes Zegelis, a photography and journalism teacher at BHS. “In the media, this area is often seen as a place that’s dangerous and infested with crime. While there are problems, the students we serve want the world to know there is much more to our community than what someone might see on television or in a news article.”

Some of the school’s advanced photography students are serving as group leaders on the project, Zegelis said. They will guide a class of beginning photography students through the documentation of the Benson area around a number of self-selected themes: diverse, selfless, historic, creative, successful, powerful and breaking stereotypes. The beginning students are currently studying documentary photography and will move to photographic composition in the near future. They are scheduled to receive their new cameras this week.

Once the final images have been selected, the students will produce a book featuring them, Zegelis said. Hundreds of the images will become a part of the community itself via a large-scale, temporary public art project, the details of which are still being finalized.

The Kickstarter funds, Zegelis said, have allowed him to purchase the equipment necessary to repeat the project each year with new groups of students. “We can together show that the world still cares about the powerful and artistic voice of teenagers and that maybe – just maybe – they can change the world – at least their part of the world – for the better,” he writes.

For more information about The Teen Voices Project, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1394593468/the-teen-voices-project. For more information about Kickstarter, an online mechanism for funding and following creative projects, visit www.kickstarter.com.

Midtown Crossing is the 2011 recipient of the Laurels Award. The honor is presented annually to an individual, organization or business that has made significant contributions to the creation of great public spaces in the metro.

Mutual of Omaha and Turner Park have served the midtown community for decades. In 2007, ground was broken on Midtown Crossing, Mutual of Omaha’s million-square-foot mixed use development project that united the two to form Omaha’s first Civic Place District. Today, the development features condominiums, apartments, retail, restaurants, a revitalized Turner Park, a dine-in movie theatre, workout facilities and more. The project is one of the first in the nation to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s pilot Neighborhood Development Certification program.

“Midtown Crossing is about more than big buildings with great residences, dining, entertainment and shopping. It’s about making a difference and giving back to a community that has been so good to us for over a century. It’s about providing a surge of fresh excitement and energy. It’s about bring ‘town’ back to Midtown. These things are the greatest reward,” said Ken Cook, president of East Campus Realty, the Mutual of Omaha subsidiary that owns Midtown Crossing.

The luncheon will also recognize the 2011 recipients of Omaha by Design’s Green Leaf, Civic Leaf and Neighborhood Leaf awards, which were presented previously.

The 2011 Green Leaf, which honors an individual, organization or business that has worked to preserve and enhance the metropolitan area’s natural setting and public park system, was awarded to Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. Among the park’s amenities is the HDR Prairie Garden, a series of four larger gardens and 23 smaller demonstration beds that showcase 28 species of native plants and grasses.

The 2011 Civic Leaf, which honors an individual, organization or business that has worked to define and improve the metropolitan area’s civic places and public image, was awarded to Anne Trumble for “Stored Potential.” The art installation transformed a massive set of concrete silos no longer in use into the launching point for an ongoing community discussion about land use, agriculture, food and transportation.

The 2011 Neighborhood Leaf, which honors an individual, organization or business that has worked to preserve and enhance the metropolitan area’s residential neighborhoods, was awarded to the Metcalfe-Harrison Neighborhood Association and the Country Club Community Council for their collaborative efforts to improve Metcalfe Park.

For more information about the luncheon or the awards program, contact Omaha by Design at 402.554.4010 or info@omahabydesign.org.

As Omaha by Design enters its second decade of service to the community in 2012, this idea is at the core of our decision to move forward as an organization.

This past summer, we began a rigorous strategic planning process to determine our future. Should we disband and celebrate the success of the past 10 years, or is it necessary and viable for Omaha by Design to continue in 2012 and beyond? We reached out to our founding donors and the community via our large-scale advisory committee, a group representing a diverse array of professions, city government staff, and representatives from the chamber and neighborhood groups. Their collective response was an overwhelming vote in favor of continuing our work. Why?

The answer that continued to crop up was our city’s need for pursuit, the need for a local organization that can bring the public, private and philanthropic sectors together to focus on the execution of projects that will fulfill the promise of Omaha’s urban design and environmental planning documents – items that were crafted with our help during the past decade.

Although we will continue to explore opportunities for undertaking new planning efforts that are critical to Omaha’s forward momentum, we are shifting our focus to project execution and monitoring – getting it done and making sure it stays done.

Our intent, as it always has been, is making our community better by improving the way it functions, looks and feels. The framework for future activity will continue to be the urban design and environmental components of the city’s master plan.

Our methods will change, depending upon the project. We will lead, and we will support. We will launch, and we will monitor. We will champion, and we will question.

Our collaborative approach, however, will not change, nor will our commitment to our core values. We believe:

• Omaha by Design’s role as a catalyst in the urban design and environmental arenas substantially impacts the region’s ability to achieve design excellence.
• Proactive collaboration and education, inclusivity, consideration of diverse opinions and constructive approaches to disagreement result in the development of solutions to complex issues.
• Great cities respect their natural, cultural, historic, architectural and neighborhood assets.
• Engaged residents can influence the function, look and feel of a community’s built and natural environments. Optimal choices are impossible without their participation.
• A community’s built and natural environments substantially impact its economy, health and culture as well as issues of race and class.
• The 21^st century will require working and living environments that are aesthetically pleasing, accessible, meaningful, humane and uplifting to the human spirit.

A quick word about education – a term that finds its way into the vision statements of many a nonprofit. We believe people learn by seeing and by doing, and we plan to step up our efforts to create opportunities that allow this type of learning to happen. A few examples…

• On Jan. 25, a group of community volunteers convened by Omaha by Design will meet to begin identifying local groups that are currently addressing the recommendations outlined in Omaha’s new Environmental Element (EE). Adopted as a component of Omaha’s master plan in December 2010, the EE contains more than 600 recommendations related to creating a more sustainable city. The recommendations that aren’t being addressed will be prioritized. Omaha by Design will then look at launching a series of implementation projects based on the prioritized list.
• In the coming weeks, Omaha by Design – in partnership with the City of Omaha – will launch a pilot project aimed at encouraging the preservation and economic vitality of Omaha’s historic neighborhoods. The project is the outgrowth of work conducted by Omaha by Design’s Conservation, Preservation and Restoration (CPR) Committee, which was formed in late 2010 to begin looking at what role the organization could play in augmenting existing preservation efforts in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro.
• In March, Omaha by Design will begin its 11^th year of offering free Place Game workshops to neighborhood and civic groups interested in improving their corner of the city. The ideas generated during the workshop often become the subject of applications to local neighborhood grant programs. More than 70 Place Game workshops have been conducted to date. To schedule a workshop in 2012, call 402.554.4010 or email info@omahabydesign.org.
• This spring, Omaha by Design will launch a Cole Creek Adopt a Stream Team in conjunction with Nathan Hale Middle School and other interested groups. The team will focus its efforts on the stretch of Cole Creek that runs through Orchard Park – the site of The Cole Creek Project.

If you’re looking for a one-sentence way to describe the future of Omaha by Design, we’re teaching our city to care for what it has while building for a sustainable future. This will mean questioning the status quo and not settling for traditional practice, static thinking, conventional wisdom and common performance – all of which comes with the territory for those in pursuit, Myatt writes.

Our city deserves nothing less – we welcome you to join us.

-       With apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson

by Ken Mayer

I’m not Scrooge, but I do expect value for my money. As I began to improve the energy efficiency of my residence, I became concerned regarding the claims being made about expensive upgrades. I heard assertions like this is 95% efficient or that will reduce costs by 40%.

This got me wondering about what would happen in my particular house. Seems like there had not been much research done on what really happens when all these improvements start working together in a structure.

Recently some answers have begun to emerge. Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation and Living Cities examined nearly 19,000 affordable housing units in New York City that had undergone energy efficiency retrofits. The study found that the changes resulted in a 19 percent savings on fuel bills and a 10 percent savings on electricity. That means a tenant can expect to save about $240 in fuel and $70 in electrical every year.

With poverty levels being what they are, maybe some energy retrofits are a way to relieve some of the strain on a lot of families.

This is encouraging news for those considering upgrades. But knowing what happens when 19,000 units are upgraded doesn’t necessarily help an individual homeowner with their own house.

I found evaluating the impact of my upgrades to be daunting at best. After considerable searching, I came upon a technique called utility bill weather normalization.

This method uses Heating Degree Days (HDD) available from the National Weather Service and information from utility bills. HDDs are a measure of the heating requirements for a given structure.  They are temperature based and don’t take into account wind or snow loads.

I had to get HDD data by the day because the utility billing cycle didn’t match the Weather Service’s monthly reporting. My spreadsheet was starting to grow, and I was feeling some eyestrain.

After sliding HDD data around to match the billing cycles, I then faced doing a linear regression analysis of the relationship between HDDs and natural gas used in hundreds of cubic feet, or CCFs.

Since I teach statistics, I can do a regression, but I know most people have either never learned to do this calculation or have long since forgotten.

Here’s what I got:

In plain English, this tells me that before I did the upgrades like new windows, high efficiency furnace and so forth, I could predict the amount of natural gas needed to heat the house in CCFs by multiplying the Heating Degree Days by .1337 and subtracting 3.7108. I also know the HDDs explains about 93% of the variation in gas usage.

Using this equation and the following winter’s HDDs, I was able to compare what my gas use would have been without the upgrades to what I had actually used. This is how I know that I used 31.5% less as a result of the retrofits.

About now, you are probably wondering what kind of nut would go to this much trouble. Sometimes I wonder that myself. But after spending thousands on these changes my curiosity about their value got the best of me.

Unfortunately, our public utilities have the same data, but they barely provide information on temperatures, much less what the heating and cooling requirements might have been that month.

Seems like it’s time that we got more help. I don’t necessarily want some kind of display that is constantly reporting the energy I’m using, but more information on the bill would be most welcome. Some simple info about the HDDs and Cooling Degree Days during the billing period would be a start. Maybe it’s time to provide some comparisons to other similar homes locally or against an energy efficiency standard as well.

I’d like to feel that I don’t have to read the fine print all the time to protect myself. For example as I researched heat pumps I discovered that discounts are contingent on setting the unit to switch from the heat pump (electricity) to the furnace (gas) at 20 degrees.

Heat pumps tend to lose efficiency below about 35 degrees, but even then, each home will have its own balance point determined by fuel prices and the structure’s characteristics. Am I going to have to do more calculating? If my set point isn’t 20 degrees will I lose those discounts if I set the heat pump for another temperature?

I think it’s time for our public utilities to simply start giving us more information about our energy usage and the means to objectively measure the impact of the changes we make. Seems to me that the gas and electric companies could work together to minimize my costs when I use both gas and electricity to heat the house.

Happy Holidays, and stay warm efficiently.

Fontenelle Park Workshop

The Omaha Department of Parks, Recreation and Public Property and Clean Solutions for Omaha will host a public workshop Thursday, Dec. 15, to discuss the Fontenelle Park concept plan and the Paxton Boulevard CSO! Project. The event will be held from 6:30 to 8:00pm at the Fontenelle Park Pavilion, 4401 Fontenelle Boulevard. All interested members of the community are invited to attend.

Meet and Greet

The Benson Farmers Market (BFM) will host a meet and greet Thursday, Dec. 15, from 5:00 to 7:00pm at the Maple-Crest Care Center, 2824 N. 66^th Ave. For more information about the BFM, visit www.bensonfarmersmarket.org.

UDRB to Meet

The City of Omaha’s Urban Design Review Board will meet Thursday, Dec. 15, at 3:00pm in the Jesse Lowe Conference Room at the Omaha/Douglas Civic Center. The seven-member board provides recommendations to the city’s planning director on issues related to urban design site plan reviews. The board meets upon request of the planning director and/or applicant to review and clarify urban design site plan review findings. For more information, visit http://www.cityofomaha.org/planning/boards/urban-design-review-board.

Ice Rink Hours

If you’re ready for winter, the outdoor ice rinks are ready for you. The Dundee Memorial Park Ice Rink in “The Sunks” along Happy Hollow Boulevard is up and running. The schedules for Omaha’s other outdoor skating rinks are below – both are open to the public.

UNMC Public Ice Rink
Located between 40^th and 42^nd streets and between Dewey Avenue and Emile Street
(Open through Feb. 29)
Schedule:
Closed Monday
Tuesday through Friday – 11:00am to 1:00pm and 4:00 to 8:00pm
Saturday – 10:00am to 8:00pm
Sunday – Noon to 8:00pm
Skate rental:
$5 a pair

ConAgra Foods Ice Rink
Located on ConAgra’s downtown campus
(Open through Dec. 31)
Schedule:
Sunday through Thursday – 1:00 to 10:00pm
Friday and Saturday – 1:00pm to midnight
Christmas Eve & New Year’s Eve – 1:00 to 5:00pm
Closed Christmas
Skate rental:
$5 a pair (all proceeds donated to the Food Bank for the Heartland)