Looking out from my 9th floor unit I have a clear view of the back on one of Des Moines’ oldest landmarks. The umbrella sign was erected in 1963 on top of the Insurance Exchange Building at 5th and Grand Avenue. The sign was the logo for the Travelers Insurance Company until the logo was abandoned in 1995. A few years later, the insurance company was acquired by Citigroup, which kept the umbrella logo and sold the insurance company.

The 50-foot wide sign, that’s about 40-foot tall, can easily be seen driving down I-235 and is is still one of the first sights that drivers from the east notice when approaching the downtown on I-235.

The sign faced dismemberment a few times since it was installed, and was pretty run down until, left neglected over the years, but in the fall of 2005, the sign returned to it’s former glory. That’s when the Graham Group, owner of the Insurance Exchange Building on which the sign sits, agreed to take over maintenance of the sign.

The Travelers sign has become an unlikely Des Moines landmark.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: History | Skyline

Nomination Deadline: September 22nd and can be emailed to: swilkeshapiro@gmail.com.
 

The Des Moines Rehabbers Club is seeking nominations from the public to name “Des Moines’ Seven Most Endangered Buildings.” Neighborhood groups, individuals, and businesses are encouraged to submit nominations for buildings in danger of demolition or neglect. Nomination forms are available for download at http://renovatedsm.com/node/305 and must be received by September 22, 2008 or can be emailed to: swilkeshapiro@gmail.com.

Eligible buildings must be located within the city of Des Moines, must be threatened with active demolition or severe neglect, and should not be in a condition that is beyond the possibility of rehabilitation. Buildings may be residential or commercial, of any size and being used for any purpose. The list will be announced in mid-October.

The Des Moines Rehabbers Club hopes to raise awareness of endangered structures in Des Moines and to promote opportunities for rehabilitating them.

The Des Moines Rehabbers Club is a group of people of all skill levels with a common interest in preservation, rehabilitation, and maintenance of Des Moines’ buildings. Free monthly meetings take place on the first Saturday of each month. Topics range from demonstrations and “work in progress” tours to classroom topics such as how to look up a home’s history. For more information you can  visit: http://renovatedsm.com/

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Community | History

So, I was able to get out and get some more pictures earlier today. Keep in mind these were quickly taken and not completely lined up with the older samples, but you can get the gist of it. Even though the new pictures were taken from the same intersection, it’s hard to imagine that our city looked so different. Most of these older pictures that I found online were from 1911 era, I would love to see a respective sometime for each of the decades through the present.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: History

The architectural tour I took this week got me really thinking about downtown buildings. So I started doing a little research on our city skyline and the various buildings that make up that skyline and here’s what I found out.

The city of Des Moines has always had, what some consider fairly substantial skyline, for a population-base of its size. For example, the 19-story Equitable Building that was built in 1924 was at the time the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. It stayed the tallest building in Iowa until the 25-story Financial Center was completed in 1972. The Financial Center only held the honor of tallest building in Iowa for two years. In 1974 the 36-story Ruan Center was added to the Des Moines skyline. It would be 17 more years before the Ruan Center would get knocked down to second place by the 801 Grand tower that was completed in 1991. It has been another 17 years now, and no other taller structure is in the works, hopefully this will change, how else can we keep up with the Joneses, I mean with that city to the west, Omaha.

According to some there’s this whole rivalry between Des Moines and Omaha. Des Moines has over a half million people in the metro and Omaha has a over three-quarters of a million, yet the Des Moines skyline seems larger than Omaha’s. I’m sure if all depends on what you use to analyze or justify your statistics. Sure Omaha has a taller building than we do, by a whole 0.9 meters. So let’s take a look at this table that I put together that compares the number of buildings in four size ranges.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: History | Skyline

So this evening I finally made it to one of the Architecture @ Hand Walking Tours. I did the North tour and had a great time learning about some of the buildings that I walk by everyday. The architectural details that my guide pointed out are things I have totally missed, but now will notice again and again on my walks through downtown. I never knew so many famous architects have designed buildings in our downtown and that we had so many different styles of architecture for a city our size. Now, I can’t wait till next summer when I can do the West, East and the new South tour. I would highly recommend these tours to anyone, it will help you experience downtown in a new and different way.

One of my favorite buildings, the Ruan Building, was completed in 1975, and stands 460 feet tall with 36 floors. It’s the second tallest building in Iowa. The outside is made out of Cor-Ten steel, which is an alloy designed to withstand the weather and require no maintenance (cleaning or painting). The building was supposed to weather to a rich red-brown color, but due to the cleaner atmosphere here, never quite made it to that color. I learned that the streaking on the building came from the window caulking that was used melting and running down the side of the building. A lot of people here thought the building was a big rust bucket, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I love the look of it.

From the Iowa Public Television site, I found this list of the 50 most significant Iowa Buildings
of the 20th Century as selected by the AIA-Iowa Chapter. The majority of these buildings are in downtown Des Moines. Dates listed here are completion dates.
* Designates building of the decade.
** Designates building of the century (which is also building of its decade.)

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Architecture | History | Skyline | Tours | Walking

Summer is almost over and I’m mad at myself for never finding the time to do the Architecture @ Hand Walking Tour. There’s only one more date left for this year, Thursday September 4th. I’m going try my best not to miss it. The Iowa Architectural Foundation offers these walking tours as a unique approach to getting to know downtown Des Moines by learning fun facts about both old and new downtown buildings.

The walking tours are led by local architects and there are three different tours to choose from: North, West and the East Village tour. The tours begin at 5:30pm and Nollen Plaza (corner of 3rd and Locust, across from the Civic Center). The tours are typical 90 minutes long and they recommend everyone to wear comfortable walking shoes. There is a $10 per person suggested donation to benefit the educational programs of the Iowa Architectural Foundation. The foundation’s goal is promote the awareness of the contribution of architecture and community design to the quality of life in Iowa since 1989.

In doing some research for this post, I found a link for some great old postcard shots of Des Moines.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Architecture | History | Skyline | Tours | Walking

Are you looking for something different to do this weekend or the next three weekends? 

Just outside of downtown, on the east-side we have this annual Des Moines Renaissance Faire and this Labor Day weekend kicks it off. For the next three weekends, you can join in a celebration of European history & culture with 10 stages of entertainment, a vast food court, beer garden, wine villa, hundreds of costumed characters, rides, games of skill and authentic equestrian jousting — all within a replica olde English castle town. This year there will be about 300 costumed characters, along with 50 artisan merchants and food vendors and more than 100 performances daily.

Here are some schedule highlights:

• August 30, 31 & September 1 (Labor Day) - Pirates, Heroes & Daring Duels (1st Weekend)
  The good folke of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire invite you to walk the plank August 30 and 31st as well as September 1st! Rub shoulders with the scurviest dogs you’ve ever met this side of the high seas. Or toss back a tankard with the prettiest and liveliest wenches in all of Christendom. Aaargh, mateys!
• September 6 & 7 - Highlanders, Celts & Lucky Lasses (2nd Weekend)
  Honor is not dead at the Des Moines Renaissance Faire! Partake in the pageantry of noble knights vying for fair damsels. Compete in games of skill and chance and show off your prowess. Collect tokens of esteem and be dubbed “the most chivalrous man or woman” by Queen Catherine. Proudly sport your clan’s tartan colors and proclaim your heritage September 6th and 7th! All hail the Queen!
• September 13 & 14 - Romance, Wine & Royal Revelry (3rd Weekend)September 13th and 14th can be also called the “weekend of wine, women, and song”—for these are the days to celebrate the best in grape-stomping, romantic-nuzzling, and nuptial ceremonies. Come, join in the authentic English court dances, savor fine wines and ales, and steal kisses from the one you love! Yonder comes my lover!

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Art | History | Video