Downtown Lincoln is compact and more walkable than most American city centers of similar size. The core is O Street — the main commercial artery — running east to west, with the state capitol at its eastern end and the Haymarket District at its western edge. The whole downtown fits comfortably inside a 15-minute walk, which makes it practical for a traveler exploring on foot.
The architecture is a mix of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century commercial buildings — several of them on the National Register of Historic Places — interspersed with the usual American downtown pattern of surface parking lots and the occasional glass office block. The historic fabric is better preserved here than in many Midwest downtowns. The area around 13th and 14th Streets near O has the best concentration of restaurants, bars, and shops.