As you may know, Earth Day is being celebrated on Wednesday, April 22nd and Des Moines like countless other cities around the world is taking part. Here are some of the events happening downtown:

On Wednesday downtown corporations and organizations will team up for the 2nd Annual Earth Day Trash Bash – a spring clean-up event organized by Operation Downtown, Des Moines Parks and Recreation, and Downtown Community Alliance. Volunteer teams will work from 2 – 4:30 p.m. to clear away litter that has accumulated on our streetscapes and trails over the winter months. After a thorough sweep of their assigned territories, teams will gather at Nollen Plaza for refreshments, music and awards.

Also in celebration of Earth Day, the Des Moines Botanical Center at 909 Robert D. Ray Drive, is offering free admission on Wednesday from 10am to 5pm.

And the Iowa DNR is unveiling a new trash sculpture. The sculpture will be unveiled between 11am to 2pm in the main lobby atrium of the Wallace State Office Building, 502 East 9th Street, in Des Moines. The artist David Williamson and DNR staff will be available to greet visitors, answer questions, and most importantly, gather public input to complete the project, only 60% of the trash sculpture is now complete. The sculpture is made of trash dredged from the Winnebago, Shell Rock and Cedar rivers last August by hundreds of volunteers on the DNR’s annual Project AWARE river cleanup event.

The Vegetarian Community of Iowa is hosting a celebration at Ritual Cafe. There will be sample of vegetarian food as well as the full Ritual Cafe menu available from 4pm to 7pm.

If you don’t have a chance to participate in one of these community events, you could always go for a walk and pick up trash you find downtown to help keep dow

Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Sculpture | Walking

For the city of our size, Des Moines has an awesome collection of downtown green spaces. Within just a few blocks of most downtown office buildings or residential units you will be within footsteps of one of the following green spaces:

• Capitol Building Terrace
• Hansen Triangle
• Nollen Plaza
• Principal Riverwalk
• Simon Estes Riverfront
• Western Gateway Park

An just outside the main downtown area, is Gray’s Lake and Waterworks Park. The City of Des Moines’ Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for 72 parks with over 3,000 acres of green space and more than 30 miles of walking and biking trails.

I believe that urban green spaces, like those that we have in downtown, are an essential component in transforming and enriching our city. If Des Moines wants to continue and attract more people to move to and live in downtown, this amenity is an important factor for a lot of people. History has shown that parks play a pivotal role in shaping the success of urban areas. Take a look at Central Park in New York City, this is considered one of the first formal “parks,” and was created to be passive and beautiful, in contrast to the density of urban life. Central Park has become a destination, not only to it’s residents and workers, but to the tourist who come to New York City, and would consider a visit to Central Park as a “must-see” on their itinerary.

Two of our public green spaces are on the verge of some wonderful changes. Western Gateway Park will be turning into a world-class sculpture garden and Nollen Plaza has some plans to completely update and transform it into an awesome destination in the heart of the Downtown Core Neighborhood. Proposed inclusions in the Nollen Plaza update include a civic gate that acts as a waterfall in the warmer months and a frozen wall during the winter. Newly created public restorms would be incased inside of a large video media cube.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Gateway West | Nollen Plaza | Parks | Sculpture | Urban Gardens

This past weekend I was in Chicago visiting some friends. We were driving down McCormick Blvd while traveling to the burbs and I noticed along the side of the road, for about a two-mile stretch, a collection of awesome looking outdoor sculptures. I found out that this area is called the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park. This park runs East of McCormick Blvd., between Dempster Street and Touhy Avenue, and spans a two mile stretch along the Chicago River and includes 72 sculptures. This got me even more anticipating our own sculpture park here in downtown Des Moines. Last week the bulldozers were tearing up the current grassy area in preparation for what’s to come by next spring.

Just to give you a little background on the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park, this park was founded in 1988 by a group of private citizens to establish and maintain a sculpture park in a two-mile-long, park setting just north of the city of Chicago. The park has been designed and formally landscaped to include bicycle paths, walkways, and seating areas, surrounded by over 70 large-scale contemporary sculptures created by noted regional, national, and international artists.

Approximately 25% of the sculptures on display make up the parks permanent collection, including works by Testa, Wareham, Gall, Ihara, Johnson, and Peart. The remainder are on loan for various periods of time from sculptors or collectors such as Zimmerman, Katz, Baur, Parker, Gallucci, Blik, Anderson, Agard, Gall and Heinrich.

The park showcases sculpture in a wide variety of styles and materials, encouraging viewers to think about and evaluate the creative process of sculpture. Since the Sculptures in the park are available for purchase, maybe these could be some of the ones that Des Moines buys for our park or set up a traveling trade agreement between the parks.

Take a look at some of the great sculpture in the park:

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Gateway West | Sculpture

Announced in July 2004, as part of one of downtown’s largest employer’s 125th anniversary celebration, the Principal Riverwalk would be one of the largest downtown transformations that the city has seen. It’s now more than four years later and I thought it would be appropriate for an overview of what was planned and what has been delivered since then.

With an opening cost projection of around $26 million, a ground breaking ceremony for Phase I took place on July 22nd, 2004. Principal would originally donate $10 million with the rest to be raised through community, civic and state monies. At that time, it was purposed that later phases may incorporate a half million dollar skate park and white water rapids courses.

By March 2005, costs estimates were more than double, now a total cost was being estimated around $55 million due to some additions to the original plan such as upgrading the Meredith Trail connector to Gray’s Lake and upgrading Principal Park to include a plaza with fountains right outside the park. Also the Hansen Company Triangle was being added to the mix.

By end of 2006, cost estimates were now totaling close to $74 million almost three times what the original cost estimate was in 2004. As 2006 drew to close, five projects had been completed totaling $15 million. The Brenton Skating Plaza, cost $4.5 million, more than double the original estimate. The Union Railroad Bridge that opened in July cost $4.5 million – $2 million more than expected.

The largest aspect of the Riverwalk project yet to be completed is the Center Street pedestrian bridge. Construction began on the site Aug. 15, with an expected completion date of late next year.

The bridge will be 400 feet long and feature 100-foot-tall arches. This bridge will be much bigger than the blue arched bridge on Interstate 235, which is only 280 feet long.

The Center Street Bridge originally was sited directly above the Center Street Dam, but will be built slightly upstream instead. The shift will make construction simpler and allow better access for any future work on the dam. It also cuts costs by shortening the span.

All riverwalk projects for Phase I should be completed by year-end 2009. I can’t wait to see it all done. This will make downtown living even more appealing.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Riverwalk | Sculpture | Tours | Urban Gardens

Did someone steal the the 4-ton 25-foot tall Nomeade sculpture from Western Gateway Park? No, but if you drive down Locust Street right now, you won’t see it. That’s because it has been temporarily moved to the Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Arrangements for loan of the art were made prior to purchase of the piece. Prior to being in Des Moines, it was in Miami, Florida at Miami Beach’s Lummus Park.I used to walk in that park all the time, when I lived in south Florida. It’s will be back this coming spring as part of the Pappajohn Sculpture Park that is currently being developed between 13th and 15th Streets and Locust Street and Grand Avenue.

The Nomade was purchased in December 2007 by John and Mary Pappajohn and placed in a temporary location in Western Gateway Park. This piece and 16 additional sculptures by world-renowned artists are being donated to the Des Moines Art Center. John and Mary Pappajohn, local Des Moines philanthropists, are donating a collection of outdoor sculpture valued at between $20 million and $30 million for Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park. This donation is believed to be the largest single public gift in Des Moines’ history.

The Pappajohns’ sculpture donations include:

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Art | Gateway West | Sculpture | Skyline | Walking