Wakey Wakey.
A long summer break comes to a close, driven more so by a drawn out and complicated move to the suburbs than anything else. Now to start again fresh. We'll see if this gets any easier, like big-boxes were.
A good place to start is Lincoln, Nebraska. It's a fun place to keep track of - we know it well, and car crashes are difficult to look away from. Lincoln and Omaha are separated by 50 or 60 miles, linked by a stretch of Interstate 80. For the most part it is empty of any development. A small town here and there, a sprinkling of metal sheds and gas stations. Lots of corn fields, some grazing cows, and a muddy river. It's a stretch of Interstate that is destined to be filled with development. At one time I remember my father suggesting that it made perfect sense to locate a regional airport along this corridor, and let Lincoln and Omaha abandon their sleepy airports.
The Lincoln Journal Star follows up on the Nebraska Innovation Zone Commission, a nineteen person committee charged to "advocate and recommend programs that encourage regional cooperation and foster community sustainability and economic development initiatives" along the Interstate 80 corridor. As the Journal Star points out, it's a virgin strip that can either be designed well (of course the word design isn't used), or it can become a wasteland of metal buildings and over-sized billboards (it already is leaving Omaha).
The occasion for the Journal Star editorial is the assemblage of a team of consultants, with Yale University Professor Alexander Garvin acting as a technical adviser to HDR Engineering, local Omaha firm:
Inspiring optimism was the inclusion on the team of Yale University Professor Alexander Garvin, who has wide experience as a consultant, including a leading role in redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.Obviously, word hasn't reached Lincoln that redevelopment at 'the pit' (New York's version of a car crash) hasn't gone so smooth, and any coherent design vision has been tossed out in favor of business as usual, compromise on a grand scale, and fear-mongering. The other consultants are Olsson Associates of Lincoln and RDG Planning and Design of Omaha. Outside of Garvin, the commission is doing a good job of looking to the locals for advice, which is undoubtedly bound to lead to more of the status quo and an underwhelming recommendation. Likely in colored pencil.
If this sounds pessimistic, visit the comments section at the end of the editorial. RMAR writes "I have not seen the reason why this development is needed - we know it's not going lower our taxes!!" You go girl! (Nebraskans are uptight about their taxes). There is room for optimism. Recently daOMA launched (an unfortunate name is bound to confuse this endeavor with a Dutchman). But seriously, daOMA - design alliance OMAha (you know architects are involved when the use of upper and lowercase letters gets all fucked up) has the potential to take the Omaha design community to the next level, hopefully leaving behind a superficial and stylistic formalism that has plagued it for years. Hopefully the discussion created by this group is able to jump between scales, and look beyond Omaha's crunked downtown (architecture / decoration), and contribute to or lead the discussion surrounding the Interstate 80 corridor (urbanism).
I-80 corridor panel raises eyes to future [Lincoln Journal Star]
