About the Omaha Riverfront Improvement Plan

The General Services Administration (GSA) is planning a new built-to-suit office building for the National Park Service (NPS) on the Missouri riverfront in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. This is providing an opportunity for GSA and the National Park Service to work with local partners--including, the Omaha Community Foundation, the City of Omaha Parks Department, Lively Omaha, and others--to shape waterfront development. More than $1 billion of public and private investment is in progress in and around the waterfront. The immediate opportunity for these partners is to help shape a program for the new NPS facility that meets NPS needs while also supporting larger waterfront development goals. In the longer term, the opportunity is for these partners and others to work together to create a world-class waterfront for Omaha-one that is cohesive, lively, and highly desired as a workplace and destination.

On October 10, 2001, the Project for Public Spaces, a GSA consultant and renowned expert in developing public spaces, lead a public brainstorming workshop in Omaha. GSA and the Omaha Community Foundation sponsored the workshop. Its purpose was to help shape the program and layout of uses on the various planned developments, to gain insight into the features, orientations, and amenities that will make these developments work together as a whole. More than 100 persons from diverse parts of the community contributed to the recommendations contained in these meeting notes.

The NPS site is adjacent to several city-owned parcels that are slated for redevelopment as public recreational facilities. These include the park and restaurant on the Lewis and Clark Landing site (Site A) and a new convention center and hotel, just west of the waterfront. The NPS site fronts a planned riverfront promenade that will connect to a colossal pedestrian bridge that will span the Missouri River between Nebraska and Iowa. It is hoped that the NPS site and its surroundings can be shaped to provide a quality environment for visitors and employees as well as a "venue" that supports Park Service interpretive programs. Similarly, the type of activities that Park Service activities could attract would directly support the community's efforts to create an active waterfront. How these various developments connect to one another and the environment and amenities they bring are key to promoting these intertwined goals.

The NPS site is at the foot of a planned 200-foot high pedestrian bridge that will span the river Missouri River. It is between the former ASARCO site, which will include a restaurant and a public park, and the planned office campus for the Gallup Organization. Concept plans for the design and programming of the city-owned parcels flanking the NPS site have not yet been developed.

The goals of the effort undertaken by GSA, its local partners, and the National Park Service are intertwined and multi-faceted:

• To develop the National Park Service site in a way that not only provides the workspace they need to support their mission but also provides a high quality "place" for its employees and visitors and an effective "venue" that supports its interpretive programs.
• To develop a cohesive strategy to revitalize the riverfront, and transform it into a world-class destination, both for the region and the people of Omaha, and one of the greatest waterfronts of the world.
• To create a series of lively public spaces throughout Omaha -- starting at the waterfront, and the major developments taking place there, radiating outward to other downtown locations, and then moving westwards out to the neighborhoods - that will support public gathering and foster a greater appreciation of the city's cultural and ethnic diversity.
• To ensure that the public spaces along the waterfront are designed in an environmentally sustainable fashion.

With these goals in mind, workshop participants evaluate five key sites along the developing waterfront:
A. Lewis and Clark Landing Park and Restaurant site (under construction)
B. Connection between Lewis and Clark Landing and NPS sites (under construction)
C. NPS office building site (in planning stage)
D. Bridge Plaza (in planning stage)
E. Gallup Organization campus (in planning stage)

Within each of these five sites, people broke up into five sub-teams, with each team assessing the site through an assigned role: 1) a family with children and seniors, 2) a tourist, 3) a teenager, 4) an office worker, or 5) an outdoor enthusiast. By envisioning the sites in this way, participants could better focus their evaluation and feedback on what is now a very large and undeveloped area; and they could better envision features that would accommodate the wide range of expected future users.