Northeast Downtown Place Game

On October 1, 2003 Lively Omaha joined with the Nebraska Chapter of the American Institute of Architects at their annual meeting in Omaha to gather community input about Northeast Downtown. A Place Game, held at the Hilton Gardens Hotel was lead by Lively Omaha facilitators in the corridor extending from the Qwest Center Omaha to the Leahy Mall.

Fred Kent, President of the Project for Public Spaces presided over the discussions and personally led one of the Place Game teams in their site visit and brainstorming session. Representatives of the businesses, residences and institutions in the area participated. In addition, senior design and architecture students from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln went out with the teams to hear ideas first hand in preparation for a day-long design Charrette held in conjunction with the AIA Convention at the Qwest Center Omaha.

In addition to the Qwest Center Omaha and Gene Leahy Mall, the area contains several hotels, residences, the new Holland Performing Arts Center, various commercial buildings, the Vlasic plant, parking structures, and a section of Interstate 480.

Several major themes emerged from the session. Those themes are presented in the link below followed by the observations and recommendations of each of the Place Game Teams.

Emerging Themes

Specific short-term and long-term improvement ideas were developed by each team for all the sites visited. Their concepts for each segment of Northeast Downtown are presented here. Web site visitors are encouraged to make comments and suggestions on the Place Game ideas.

Group 1 - Interstate 480 from 8th to 13th Streets

Group 2 - Capitol Avenue from 8th to 13th Streets

Group 3 - Dodge Street from 8th to 10th Streets

Group 4 - Dodge Street from 10th to 13th Streets

Group 5 - Douglas Street from 8th to 13th Streets

In addition to improvement ideas, Place Game participants came up with organizations and groups that might be interested in becoming partners to help implement their place making suggestions.

Local Partners

For more information about Lively Omaha and the Place Game, email connie@livelyomaha.org.