Location: Omaha, Nebraska

Client: Seventy Five North

Status: Concept Design Completed in 2019

Area: 8 acres (4,300 linear feet/13 blocks)

Team: TEN x TEN, Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture, Olsson

The Linear Park concept started in 2014 during the master planning of Highlander, the mixed-use development located along 30th Street in North Omaha. Highlander’s non-profit developer, Seventy Five North, works to facilitate the revitalization of a healthy, sustainable, mixed-income community in the Highlander neighborhood. Built on the former site of the Pleasantview homes, a 300-unit public housing site in north Omaha, Highlander has been a catalyst for development and activity in the neighborhood. To strengthen the educational opportunities in the neighborhood, Seventy Five North partnered with Howard Kennedy Elementary School, which is located 10 blocks to the north of Highlander, along the 30th Street corridor.

Previously a major north-south connector, in the 1970s 30th Street’s traffic was diverted when the City of Omaha and the U.S. Department of Transportation demolished a significant portion of north Omaha’s urban fabric to construct Highway 75. The resulting freeway bisected the neighborhood and had significant negative impacts on the area. To help mitigate the poor walking conditions between Highlander and Howard Kennedy, the idea emerged for the “walking school bus”, a linear park that would span between the two nodes, providing a safe walking environment for students, as well as opportunities for stem-based activities.

With all the progress and development in the district, the concept of the walking school bus needed to be revisited, revised, and further developed. No longer singularly focused on a landscaping intervention between Highlander and Howard Kennedy, the current plan includes programmed landscapes, right of way improvements, and strategic infill opportunities from Parker Street to Bristol Street that will help inform and envision the future of the 30th Street corridor. A bold and beautiful physical public space connection along 30th Street, that reaches into the neighborhood at key nodes, will provide safety and enrichment opportunities between the Howard Kennedy School and Highlander.