Heartland of America Park

Downtown, Midtown, and all parts east of 72nd.

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Brad
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Heartland of America Park

Post by Brad »

Heartland of America Park

I think that the city or someone should build a tunnel over the train tracks between heartland of America park and the river, then extend the river walk south from Rick's to the south end of ConAgra. It would be much better than the disjointed connection we have now. Could create some great views of the river too.
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Heartland of America Park

Post by jiminomaha »

Heartland of America Park is a fantastic place, I go there often. I have always thougt it would be great to incorporate the river into it more. I think creating a tunnel though would be very very expensive. Any body have any other ideas? Also, when I walked across that bridge on Saturday from Lewis and Clark Landing to the Qwest Center, I was thinking that the train tracks kind of cut off those two attractions as well. I think they could have created a more functional and visually appealing bridge between the two. I just think that they could have created much better access from the Qwest Center and Hilton Hotel to Lewis and Clark Landing, What does anyone else think?
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Heartland of America Park

Post by ItsAllAboutMe »

I searched and searched but could not find anything on this so if a thread has already been created "tuff doodoo".

I was riding through the park last night and noticed that the landscape work is almost complete and it would appear the installation will happen soon.   I don't have a rendering of the sculpture but I'm sure someone here does.
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Heartland of America Park

Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

Wow, the "Coming Soon" sign for this sculpture has been there FOREVER.  It'll be cool if it finally happens.
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Heartland of America Park

Post by Coyote »

We really don't have a thread dedicated to this Park?
Anyway, my date, her dog and I walked the riverfront this evening...:
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skinzfan23
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by skinzfan23 »

I noticed that the fountain was turned on about a week ago already.
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Brad
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Brad »

Forgotten??? Yeah Right.

Downtown's forgotten park to get skating rink, botanical garden, winter market and more

https://www.omaha.com/news/plus/downtow ... b48f0.html
Heartland of America Park may be downtown Omaha’s most forgotten park.

Despite its picturesque fountains and pristine views of the skyline, it’s hard to reach and its trail often attracts more goose poop than visitors.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by ita »

Brad wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:37 am Forgotten??? Yeah Right.

Downtown's forgotten park to get skating rink, botanical garden, winter market and more

https://www.omaha.com/news/plus/downtow ... b48f0.html
Heartland of America Park may be downtown Omaha’s most forgotten park.

Despite its picturesque fountains and pristine views of the skyline, it’s hard to reach and its trail often attracts more goose poop than visitors.
I don't know, that last line holds true, even if no one wants to admit it. If you count the poop in the grass as well as the sidewalk, you know there's more poop than people the use it.

In seriousness, I actually really like Heartland, and there are always a decent amount of people using it for various purposes when we go to feed said poop producing aviary. I do like that the redux will include more amenities and activities. It's great that construction is so soon on Heartland and that we will see both this and GLM change the landscape. The biggest key to this RiverFront project is connectivity, which I hope will be realized when it's built out.

I do wish though that the renderings of either the Conagra redevelopment or the RiverFront, would include the other project so we have a clearer idea about how they will work together.

Edit: I take that back, I believe this angle shows Phase 1(a), the five story residential property, in the Conagra project in the background.

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omaha Cowboy »

At the end of the W-H piece the- 41 photos showing the development of the GLM from 1974 to present really brings back some memories..

It’s worth a look...

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omahacritic »

An extension of vision lacking from Leahy Mall rebuild.

Mark my words .. that concept depiction won’t come to fruition. Where they place people walking will be puddles of water and mud at least 72 hours after every rain. The tables and such ... to what purpose? No food close by. No parking close by.

Heartland Park is a cool place. It’s problem was the design that made it look like ConAgra private property. Not inviting. Tourists couldn’t find it. And if they did, unsure where they were headed. Locals unwilling to venture that far.

I’m also betting the Conagra building redevelopment will continue the feelings of exclusivity .
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by nativeomahan »

Parks that are intentionally designed to be dead-ends will always succeed at being just that.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by omahahawk »

Heartland of America Park closed for Riverfront Revitalization construction




https://www.wowt.com/video?vid=565712802
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by hamburgbamberg »

nativeomahan wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 8:48 am Parks that are intentionally designed to be dead-ends will always succeed at being just that.
Isn't it supposed to connect to the pedestrian bridge eventually?
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Brad »

hamburgbamberg wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 11:50 am
nativeomahan wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 8:48 am Parks that are intentionally designed to be dead-ends will always succeed at being just that.
Isn't it supposed to connect to the pedestrian bridge eventually?
There has been a trail from Heartland of America Park to the Pedestrian bridge since the day the bridge opened. The trail was built long before the bridge.

The park has not been a true "Dead End" since 2007 when the trail on the Con Agra side of the lake was built.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Joe_Sovereign »

The crazy thing abut HoA Park is it was perfectly positioned to leave 8th street in place. It would have run right at the top of the park where the two ConAgra buildings sat. It would have given perfect access to the park and would have allowed anyone arriving to see the whole park. Even if you tore down Jobbers Canyon and gave the land on both sides of 8th Street to Conagra it would have allowed fantastic public access.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omahacritic »

If planners could plan, HoA would have visibility and a welcoming access on southwest side.

Calling it a park is like calling dead ends through streets.

Walk there daily, yet feel as though I am intruding.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Louie »

Omahacritic wrote: Tue Dec 31, 2019 3:08 am If planners could plan, HoA would have visibility and a welcoming access on southwest side.

Calling it a park is like calling dead ends through streets.

Walk there daily, yet feel as though I am intruding.
That's a really great way of putting it. It feels like you're on a corporate campus that you don't work at.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by ita »

I have not been downtown in the while, but checked the progress on HOA Park on the Riverfront website and noticed that they already made good progress. It looks like they already reduced the lake to the desired size.

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by skinzfan23 »

Wow, thanks for the picture. I just went down to the area this past weekend for the first time in 3-4 months. It looked quite a bit different, but I didn't know they had made all that progress on east side of the property by the lake. Overall, I really like the project (I have always felt that the area wasn't fully utilized), but I am sad that they couldn't find a way to keep the lake the same size. The gondola rides on the lake were pretty nice and also offered a great view of downtown.

I can't wait to see some construction going vertical on the site though.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omahacritic »

What you see is nonstop dirt. 50 trucks a day.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Cermak »

I’m curious as to why the ConAgra headquarters building couldn’t be saved somehow. It seems like such a waste to knock it down, unless it had some structural issues, mold or the building that’s going to replace it is substantially better. Like when Omaha’s cool Medical Arts building was demolished to make way for FNB Tower. I thought it could of possibly made a good smaller downtown library or general use office space. This new ConAgra project better be impressive.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by ita »

Cermak wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2020 3:40 pm I’m curious as to why the ConAgra headquarters building couldn’t be saved somehow. It seems like such a waste to knock it down, unless it had some structural issues, mold or the building that’s going to replace it is substantially better. Like when Omaha’s cool Medical Arts building was demolished to make way for FNB Tower. I thought it could of possibly made a good smaller downtown library or general use office space. This new ConAgra project better be impressive.
I don't know what the condition was, but that portion of the Conagra campus, in my opinion, served as a dead end to Old Market and downtown. With the redevelopment project of Conagra and Heartland of America Park, I believe they will effectively extend Old Market into Heartland of America Park and the river and open up additional potential project sites that will increase density in that part of downtown. It should be a much better use of land in downtown versus the Conagra building(s) that was there.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omahacritic »

Or, wall off the river even more.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Brad »

Here is a photo @OmahaRiverfront Tweeted today:

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by skinzfan23 »

I am excited to see the finished product, but I am sad that they made the lake that much smaller. The rest of the space is going to be a huge upgrade because it was never utilized outside of Taste of Omaha.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omaha Cowboy »

Once the finished product is completed, this will be miles better than what was there before..

The street level “attractive walk ability“ component alone is well worth the time it’s taking to redesign...

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Garrett »

Do we know if there are plans to add a fountain back to the lake?
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Greg S »

skinzfan23 wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 9:19 am I am excited to see the finished product, but I am sad that they made the lake that much smaller. The rest of the space is going to be a huge upgrade because it was never utilized outside of Taste of Omaha.


I am with you. I somehow missed early on the lake size was being reduced. Too bad they could not have figured out a way around that.

Does anyone know of a graphic that shows the layout of the skating ribbon. Would love to see how long it is and how many twists and turns.

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Greg S wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:48 am
skinzfan23 wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 9:19 am I am excited to see the finished product, but I am sad that they made the lake that much smaller. The rest of the space is going to be a huge upgrade because it was never utilized outside of Taste of Omaha.


I am with you. I somehow missed early on the lake size was being reduced. Too bad they could not have figured out a way around that.

Does anyone know of a graphic that shows the layout of the skating ribbon. Would love to see how long it is and how many twists and turns.

Greg
I also missed the lake reduction. There are some plans on the Riverfront Revitalization website (https://riverfrontrevitalization.com/as ... tation.pdf) that show the lake project including the horseshoe shaped pool on the left of the photo. I assumed they were going to drain that as well but it looks like they built the dam to allow them to construct a boat dock and amphitheater on the curvy part.

There are a handful of graphics of the skating ribbon as well.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Garrett wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:47 am Do we know if there are plans to add a fountain back to the lake?
According to the plans they are keeping both fountains intact - the one in the middle of the lake as well as the one on the east side.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omaha Cowboy »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:11 am
Garrett wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:47 am Do we know if there are plans to add a fountain back to the lake?
According to the plans they are keeping both fountains intact - the one in the middle of the lake as well as the one on the east side.
Yep. Even with the reduction in lake size (which to most people, they probably wouldn’t notice it or have any idea), this space is going to finally be utilized to its fullest..

Like I intimidated earlier, it’ll be worth the wait...

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Omaha Cowboy wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:16 am
Yep. Even with the reduction in size, this space is going to finally be utilized to its fullest..

Like I intimidated earlier, it’ll be worth the wait...

Ciao..LiO...Peace
I cannot fully express the amount of fear you've instilled in me about the worthiness of the wait for this park.


:D
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by ita »

Even though we'll lose half the lake, at least there will be access to the river. I think that is a good compromise.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omaha Cowboy »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:33 am
Omaha Cowboy wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:16 am
Yep. Even with the reduction in size, this space is going to finally be utilized to its fullest..

Like I intimidated earlier, it’ll be worth the wait...

Ciao..LiO...Peace
I cannot fully express the amount of fear you've instilled in me about the worthiness of the wait for this park.


:D
:lol: See, this is what I get for trusting spell check..

Perhaps we’re starting a new trend here-

At least I intimidated you into believing in this plan :;): ...

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omaha Cowboy »

ita wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 1:02 pm Even though we'll lose half the lake, at least there will be access to the river. I think that is a good compromise.
Agreed :thumb: ...

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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omahacritic »

Garrett wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:47 am Do we know if there are plans to add a fountain back to the lake?
The big fountain is still operational. Not quite the heights as before.
The smaller still stands, though it doesn’t spout off.
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Omahacritic »

Here’s some pic’s for the Homers. Notice the landscaping in the foreground. And all the electrical work.


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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by mcarch »

Is the fountain still shooting at full height?
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by SiliconFarmer »

nope, just a fraction of what it used to be
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Re: Heartland of America Park

Post by Brad »

SiliconFarmer wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 12:37 pm nope, just a fraction of what it used to be
I’m hoping it’s just turned down while they have that temporary levee and pumps running on the north side.
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