The Omaha Performing Arts Society (Holland Performing Arts Center) recently announced their plan to expand and with it raze four turn-of-the-century buildings. All four buildings have been artfully restored, are occupied, and are vibrant jewels adding the kind of charm for which Downtown Omaha is famous.

Sign this petition to tell the Performing Arts Society board:
• You want to see these buildings saved.
• And to encourage them to work with architects, planners and preservationists to create a solution to incorporate these buildings into their expansion plans.

The 131-year-old Christian Specht Building at 1110 Douglas St. was named a Landmark of the City of Omaha in 1981. It was added to the National Register in 1977.  It is the most intact iron-front building in the state of Nebraska.

Other buildings threatened include the three-story brick Happy Hollow Coffee Co. building, which was featured in Architectural Digest magazine for its splendid renovation, and the Marshall Paper Co./T.H. Smith Co. buildings, built in 1890, which currently house Alvine & Associates, employers of a large number of urban professionals.

These buildings would fit perfectly into what could be a thriving 11th Street corridor connecting the Old Market with the Holland Center, HDR, the Capitol District, TD Ameritrade and the North Downtown arts district. Another parking garage in between would create a dead zone where nothing creative can happen.

And how cool would it be to incorporate a restaurant, educational spaces, offices and even guest artist apartments inside these historic buildings.

Too often Omaha has been known as a "tear-down" city. Let's work together to show the country that Omaha can create a space that will be talked about and featured in publications across the county for its mix of old and new.

ReSpecht Omaha History! Let's save these buildings together.