ARCHITECTURE / HONOR

Monarch Place, Omaha, NE

Owner: Quantum Quality Real Estate
Firm: Randy Brown Architects
Photographer: Farshid Assassi

The challenge was to design a commercial retail building on the edge of Omaha. The goals for the project were:

1. For the building to draw people’s attention as they drive by
2. To create a public outdoor space
3. To incorporate plantings in artistic ways 

The solution looked to the billboard as a conceptual starting point.   The billboard presents the “commercial company name” to people in their cars.   The billboard’s structural steel pieces, skin and lighting were incorporated into the building design.  

This building type is replacing the barns which once stood on the site.  We created the transparency of an old barn by designing a skin built from galvanized metal studs.

We answered the question:  “Can a commercial retail building be beautiful?”