Federal Office Building (1934), Omaha, Nebraska
Dedicated in February 1934 and designed by the Omaha firm of Kimball, Steele & Sandham, the thirteen-story Federal Office Building on South 15th Street in Downtown Omaha is a model of the stripped classical style with Art Deco elements that characterized Depression-era federal construction — NRHP-listed in 2009, converted to a hotel in 2013 with its terrazzo floors and exterior facade preserved intact.
At a glance
The Federal Office Building stands at 106 South 15th Street in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Designed by the firm of Kimball, Steele & Sandham (Thomas R. Kimball, William L. Steele, and Josiah D. Sandham) with associated architect George B. Prinz, the building was constructed between 1931 and 1934 as part of the New Deal building program, consolidating multiple federal agencies under one roof. It served the federal government for over seventy years before being sold for $23 million in 2011 and converted to a Residence Inn by Marriott, which opened in October 2013. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, the building preserves its original terrazzo marble floors and exterior facade.
Key facts
- Built: 1931–1934 (dedicated February 28, 1934)
- Style: Stripped classical with Art Deco elements
- Architect: Kimball, Steele & Sandham (Thomas R. Kimball, William L. Steele, Josiah D. Sandham); George B. Prinz (associated)
- Stories: 13
- NRHP listed: March 17, 2009
- Conversion: Residence Inn by Marriott (opened October 2013; $23 million renovation)
- Preserved features: Terrazzo marble floors; original exterior facade
- Address: 106 South 15th Street, Omaha, Nebraska
- GPS: 41.25947, −95.93618
History
In March 1929, the consolidation of scattered federal agencies into a single purpose-built facility in downtown Omaha was announced publicly. The project received federal approval in February 1931 after some delay caused by opposition from the War Department; development officially began in May 1931. Site preparation was completed by February 1932 and construction began shortly thereafter. The building was officially dedicated on February 28, 1934, at a moment of peak federal construction activity across the country as New Deal agencies and building programs accelerated to provide employment and modernize American infrastructure.
The building’s original tenants included the National Weather Service and other federal agencies — the full range of federal administrative functions that would have been distributed among leased offices across the city before the consolidation. The structure served as Omaha’s main federal administrative hub for more than seventy years. In July 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the final federal occupant, vacated the building. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in March 2009 and offered for sale. In December 2011, developers purchased it and undertook a $23 million conversion to a Residence Inn by Marriott hotel, which opened to guests in October 2013. The conversion preserved the original terrazzo marble floors and the exterior facade in order to maintain the building’s NRHP status.
What you see
The Federal Office Building’s exterior displays the characteristic vocabulary of early-1930s federal architecture: a tall stone-clad block in which the vertical piers rise through multiple stories without interruption, the spandrel panels between floors are treated as subordinate horizontal elements, and the ornamental program — concentrated at the entrance bays and the upper setback floors — applies Art Deco geometric motifs to what is fundamentally a classical composition. The architects described their intention as creating a building with “stripped classical proportions”: the mass, symmetry, and axiality of classical civic architecture, without the applied columns and entablature that earlier federal buildings in the same tradition had used.
Inside the converted hotel, the terrazzo marble floors of the original federal building survive in the lobby and public areas, their geometric patterning providing a direct material continuity between the Depression-era federal interiors and the contemporary hotel program. The exterior limestone cladding and the setback treatment at the upper floors remain unchanged — the most visible legacy of the 1934 federal building in the 21st-century street context of Downtown Omaha.
Practical information
- Now a Residence Inn by Marriott; the hotel lobby and exterior are accessible to guests and the general public.
- The original terrazzo marble floors are visible in the lobby and common areas.
- Located in Downtown Omaha, one block south of the Farnam Street main commercial corridor.
Getting there
The Federal Office Building is at 106 South 15th Street in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Eppley Airfield (OMA) is approximately 4 miles northeast of downtown. Omaha is served by Amtrak’s California Zephyr at the Omaha Station on South 9th Street, approximately 7 blocks south. By car, Interstate 480 runs through downtown Omaha, with several exits providing access to the 15th Street corridor. The Old Market neighborhood — Omaha’s historic warehouse and entertainment district — is approximately 8 blocks south on 15th Street.
Nearby
- Joslyn Art Museum — Omaha’s primary art museum in an Art Deco Georgia pink marble building designed by John and Alan McDonald, completed 1931; home of the largest collection of Western American art in the United States, approximately 1 mile north on Davenport Street
- Old Market District — Omaha’s Victorian-era warehouse and commercial district, converted in the 1970s to a pedestrian shopping and dining quarter; approximately 8 blocks south
- Durham Museum — Omaha’s history museum in the former Union Station (1931), a grand Art Deco train station by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, approximately 0.7 miles south on South 10th Street
Sources
- Wikipedia: “Federal Office Building (Omaha, Nebraska)”
- National Register of Historic Places, listed March 17, 2009
- Omaha World-Herald: “New Deal building may find new role,” April 4, 2009
- KETV Omaha: “Old federal building turns into Residence Inn,” October 24, 2013
- Wikimedia Commons: FederalOfficeBuildingOmahaNE.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Ammodramus
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