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 Construction on the Omaha Livestock Exchange was completed in 1926.
The Architect was George Prinz, who captured the Romanesque and Northern Italian
Renaissance Revival styles. Built with the H-Shaped plan, used to maximize the natural
light into the office spaces, by Peter Kiewit & Sons; the building was designated an
Omaha Landmark: June 22, 1999.
The largest and most visually prominent building constructed on the Omaha Union Stockyards
site, the Livestock Exchange Building, is the most significant structure associated with
the Omaha Stockyards. Upon its completion in May 1926, it served as the center of the
livestock industry in Omaha.
The three largest meatpacking centers in the history of the nation were Chicago, Kansas
City and Omaha. In 1955 Omaha reached a long time goal, becoming the largest stockyard
and meat processing center in the country. By 1957, the livestock industry employed
half of Omaha's workforce.
Designed as a multi-purpose building, the Livestock Exchange Building housed not only
offices but a bakery, cafeteria, kitchen, soda fountain, cigar stand, telephone and
telegraph offices, apartments and sleeping rooms, a clothing store, ballrooms and a
convention hall.
Stylistically, the Livestock Exchange Building is an eclectic mix of the Romanesque
revival style and the northern Italian Renaissance revival. Sitting like an island in
the center of what were once expansive stock pens in South Omaha, the building retains
an autonomous and imposing position over this section of the city.
As a competent of the grand Stockyards East Redevelopment Plan, NuStyle Development
Corporation has renovated the building into 102 apartments, commercial space and two
ballrooms.
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