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Sculpture Park Embodies Pioneer Spirit
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In 1998, the First National Bank of Omaha reserved two large CBD parking lots for green spaces while creating their new corporate campus. These green spaces became home to a sculpture park that is now the largest installation of site-specific bronze in America, and includes 123 works of art disbursed over five city blocks.
First National Bank?EUR??,,????'???s goal was to unify their downtown campus of nine city blocks using a cohesive artistic style, similar materials, art mediums, signage, etc. throughout the entire monument. Eleven years of planning and execution by a world-class team of professionals transformed their campus into an urban sculpture park depicting life on the morning of May 21, 1841. The commotion of a wagon train leaving downtown Omaha along a dry creek bed (Pioneer Courage), stampedes a nearby herd of bison which in turn flushes a flock of geese from a nearby pond (Spirit of Nebraska?EUR??,,????'???s Wilderness).
Design Philosophy The team?EUR??,,????'???s design philosophy was to create an interactive, environmental sculpture park with the public not only observing America?EUR??,,????'???s history, but becoming a participant or member of the wagon train and walking in and around the wagons, animals, and birds, rather than observing them from a distance.
The bronze sculptures show the pioneer?EUR??,,????'???s struggles as they travel (top), one of the meat hunters in the expedition (middle), and the first wagon (bottom) leaving downtown Omaha. The feel of the 1800s was brought out using native plants and prairie grasses including: Shenandoah Switch grass and Seedless Cottonwood, Black Willow and Bur Oak. The hardscapes are limestone, 2,500 tons of which were used on the project.
Hoping to set the standard for future figurative monuments in America, the team shaped a modern urban park by engaging Omaha?EUR??,,????'???s architecture and utilizing sustainable native plants and materials. Individual works within the monument are 1.25 times life size and cast predominantly in bronze, creating a uniform appearance and continuity between the two sites. The 1.25 times life scale selected allows the art to look life-size on the site and at the same time not overpower the plant material.
Two Sites ?EUR??,,????'??? Stories Intertwined Blair Buswell and Ed Fraughton sculpted Pioneer Courage, which captures the optimism of the families departing on a journey that will forever change their lives and transform the nation. This site is 400-feet long and includes four pioneer families and their covered wagons. Each wagon stands approximately 12-feet tall and more than 40-feet long when the oxen, horses, or mules are placed in their hitches, with individual figures ranging in height from three feet to seven-and-a-half feet.
Other components add to the storyline including the wagon master standing at 11-feet tall and weighing approximately 2,000 pounds, and the hunter group that is returning to the wagons with much needed fresh meat.
Kent Ullberg?EUR??,,????'???s Spirit of Nebraska?EUR??,,????'???s Wilderness composition depicts a herd of bison rumbling through the business district and includes three bulls standing at 8-feet high and weighing nearly 1,400 pounds, several yearling bulls, and two cows with their calves. The bison in turn disturb a nearby flock of 8-foot Canada geese taking flight from a pond. Their flight is portrayed during different stages ?EUR??,,????'??+ beginning with the chaos of birds taking off from the pond, flying across the street and being attached to 18-foot bronze trees, traffic signals, and integrated into the city?EUR??,,????'???s architecture. The composition culminates in the bank headquarters?EUR??,,????'??? glass atrium with several stainless steel birds being suspended in the space.
The transition from bronze to stainless steel symbolizes the bank?EUR??,,????'???s rich history extending from 1857 (bronze) to its current state (bronze and stainless steel), and into the bank?EUR??,,????'???s future (stainless steel). Each of these works has been strategically placed to engage visitors, particularly children, as they pass.
The final setting at the Spirit of Nebraska?EUR??,,????'???s Wilderness portion of the park features the Canadian geese in full flight. These are five of the 58 geese sculptures included in the park.
Landscape Architect Contribution Before installation, the sites required master planning and then attention to detail from lead landscape architect, Jim Reeves. From creating a sustainable design to integrating minimally invasive signage, this project was a labor of love. Every block of Hayton limestone (some weighing over 60,000 lbs) was individually selected, diagramed, and numbered by the landscape architect, precise angles made by stone cutters, and dedicated craftsmen transported them the site and assembled them per Reeve?EUR??,,????'???s original plan.
Over a period of 18 months, a giant jigsaw puzzle with 2,500 tons of rock and countless truckloads of soil, gravel, and sand transformed a flat parking lot into a plinth for Pioneer Courage. Sustainable materials were important and the team used traditional materials of granite, limestone, native plants, and prairie grasses to capture the essence of what once was as well as to minimize runoff and future maintenance expense.
To minimize the visual impact of traditional signage, the team integrated medallions into the stone pathways near the major entrances to the sculpture park. The medallions incorporate actual bronze works of art in an effort to amalgamate design components. Additional examples of continuity throughout the sculpture park and the client?EUR??,,????'???s campus are natural limestone slabs for benches, the diorama, single trees of bronze used to support the handrails (inspired by a section of the animal?EUR??,,????'???s harnesses), and the lighting reflects a soft moonlit night verses the more traditional approach of bright stage lighting.
This sculpture represents a well-to-do family trekking west. The wagon sculpture stands approximately 12-feet tall and more than 40-feet long, with individual figures ranging in height from three feet to seven-and-a-half feet. This sculpture is the second in line when viewing the site plan for Pioneer Courage. The site plan identifies the conceptual locations for all of the major elements and materials, including green spaces and retaining walls. Site plan: HDR Landscape Architecture
About Boody Fine Arts As the bank?EUR??,,????'???s art consultant and project manager since 1999, Boody Fine Arts, Inc. assisted in assembling a team of design professionals and artists, coordinating the multiple site master planning process, and managing and overseeing the implementation of the entire project. Boody Fine Arts, Inc. and Public Art & Practice, LLC partnering with clients develop artistic solutions that visually enhance spaces where we live, work and play. Since 1978 the founders and owners, Steven and Diane Boody, have specialized in planning and managing corporate, public, and private art collections. The marrying of Steven?EUR??,,????'???s background in Landscape Architecture and Public Administration, with Diane?EUR??,,????'???s experience as a professional artist, offers our clients a unique, collaborative perspective within the industry. Their diverse client list today includes developers, cities, counties, professional firms, medical centers, sport stadiums and numerous Fortune 500 Corporations.
This project has received the following awards:
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Project Team
Vendors
Raleigh, North Carolina
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
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