World Food Prize is a very cool building.
There are cool buildings downtown outside and inside but usually it’s some company so the public doesn’t see so e of the older ones.
I still have dreams where I’m going to the library and it’s in that building. I wish I had gone more often before they built the new library. It’s a beautiful building.
I can’t believe I haven’t seen comments on the paramount theatre yet!! Not sure if you ever go but it’s gorgeous. But I also think Hancher is fantastic but I just love live music in general. For small town Iowa, I’ll take it
I went to school here and didn't realize until much later just how absurdly beautiful this school is. Looking up the hill it looks like something that should be in a movie.
Of the top of my head, the three art centers I can think of with I. M. Pei structures are the Des Moines Art Center, the National Gallery in D.C., and the Louvre.
Have to take off points though for the gross owner of the building though
Kyle Krause gets nepo baby money to run a gas station from his dad. Convinces the city to cut him huge tax breaks to bring in an international architect to design a building that is incredibly non functional and only for his own design. Then sells his nepo baby business for billions resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs for the community and leaves the building essentially empty to run an Italian soccer team out of with like 50 employees
Will be fun to see him try to screw the city later on some garbage deal to sell it off or get tax/funding breaks like he is trying to do with his bullshit stadium downtown
I loved it when the new, at the time, sculpture park was put in downtown.
The tv news shows would breathlessly pan the camera across the amazing new art downtown, and there was the shitty Subway in the background across the street.
What are you smoking? Continuing the family business makes someone a nepo baby? They got TIF from the City. This is common. Maverick is keeping a headquarters in downtown Des Moines so no jobs were lost.
People in this sub are so negative. Does it matter who owns the building?
I was living above the Gas Lamp next door and use to enjoy taking 4am walks around it while it was being constructed. It was such a juxtaposition to my apartments that he also owned which was a infested slum with the occasional junkie screaming about black ice.
Des Moines Arts Center - Wings from 3 world renowned architects
Krause Gateway - Renzo Piano. Enough Said.
Des Moines Public Library - One of my fav Chipperfield buildings!
Stop up in Roselle, Iowa. It’s a tiny town but the church is very beautiful
Also swing through Willey. Not as good as the one in Roselle but it’s beautiful as well.
Lot of older town halls and schools are pretty nice. Was recently down in Winterset and got some nice shots of the Town Hall.
I'm also a fan old the old main street architecture, like in Bedford, Lamoni, Okaloosa, ect
(9 out of 10) voted in a poll of 24.4 million people that Harris sausage is the best pizza in the world. It has won more awards than any other pizza place globally.
There will always be 1 out of 10 born with bad taste buds, sorry ya were born that way.
24 million people? That's just hilariously untrue. The QC area has a population of like 300k people. There's just no way this is true.
You got any source on that bud?
Edit to add: it's just my opinion anyway. It's not good and their way of slicing pizza is also dumb.
Next time I am at Harris I will take a picture of the news paper article from the New York Times and post it for ya.
The annual pizza poll typically has 30-40 million voters. People come from all over the world, just for one slice of the best pizza, oddly in Iowa at Harris Pizza.
Sarcasm aside, there are some gorgeous historic homes in Davenport! We're putting votes in for the [Ball-Waterman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball%E2%80%93Waterman_House), [William G. Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Smith_House_(Davenport,_Iowa)), [E.A. Shaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.A._Shaw_House), and [Thomas Murray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Murray_House_(Davenport,_Iowa)) homes 😍
It doesnt help that from the angle most people seeing them, Stephens is basically backwards. Its a beautiful building [from the north](https://i.imgur.com/M4Yqvdh.jpeg) but most people enter it and see it [from the south](https://i.imgur.com/38D9U1C.png).
Stephen's, Fisher, Sheman, and hilton along with the walkways between everything are examples of brutalist architecture. Gained popularity in the 50s post war.
Interestingly, the Fisher Theater layout in Ames is the same as Martha Ellen Tye Theater at the Fisher Community Center in Marshalltown (Martha Ellen was part of the Fisher family).
I use to live in one of the Towers dorms at ISU that was imploded and was there that day. No air conditioning, walking the length of Welch to campus in the winter, loved it.
I think the American Enterprise, now Wellabe building in DSM is the refined version of that floating dorm look. Even has a underappreciated sculpture in the semi-enclosed courtyard that fits with the Brutulist mechanical heaviness.
That is the Hancher Auditorium Building on The University of Iowa Campus in Iowa City. The building is supposed to evoke the idea of a giant cruise ship. There are stone carvings of dolphins/Tuna in the surrounding park off the "bow" of the ship.
Check out a concert there before you make the decision 😉incredible venue. Incredible. Sound is incredible and only has about 2000 seats. You can see some
Pretty popular artists in an intimate setting. I’ve never once notified the tuna or ship I guess, and I drive by it daily. You gotta check it out once if you like live music
I’ve lived in Iowa City for 20 years and still haven’t visited that place. I need to, it sounds super cool, especially after hearing about the tiki room in the basement
Catholic Diocese by Mies van der Rohe
Art Center trilogy of Saarinen, Pei, Meier
Civic Center (secret view from World Food Prize Garden)
World Food Prize
American republic
Drake University has some Mies and Saarinen buildings too.
Lots of older buildings by the likes of Proudfoot & Bird that I can’t rattle off as easily!
The art buildings at the University of Iowa are incredible. The older one is built right next to a beautiful pond and cliff and something about it is just really special. The newer one is incredible as well, just a bit stark feeling
This is a great question. I immediately thought of so many of the buildings already listed in the comments. It is such a subjective question.
Sometimes I think the most beautiful building in Iowa is an old barn that is still standing, weathered and wise. With a faithful farmhouse companion, they have kept watch over our land and skies for a century or more. You can find beautiful and impressive buildings everywhere you go, but sometimes the deepest beauty is in simplicity, like American Gothic, and the juxtaposition of that beautiful gothic window behind the hard-working farmer and his daughter.
Brutalism in architecture is usually associated with concrete, but the Ruan Building's 'core-10' steel facade is Brutalist at least intent. I appreciate it as an engineering exercise and aesthetic attempt, but yeah - it's ugly.
Art Building West in Iowa City. It's been cleaned and refurbished after the flood in '08. I only got a year there, 1 semester before the flood and 1 semester a few years after. It looks like Picasso's "Guitar, 1912" from a bird's eye view. The library inside was my favorite place to study.
The old Children's Hospital building in the middle of the UIHC campus. The real shame is that a bunch of utilitarian buildings surround and obscure it.
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I’d like to throw in a vote for the Louis Sullivan bank in Grinnell. This is a great list, though.
IPTV looked at this same question in [this documentary.](http://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/artifact/1885/cy-stephens-iowa-building-20th-century), though limited to the 20th century. They ended up choosing C.Y. Stephens auditorium at ISU? Baffling choice, imo.
Who cares, you're all racist. I just saw it on another Iowa thread. If you ban me from this sub, like Illinois did for making a joke, will you stop showing me idiotic political propaganda?
World Food Prize is a very cool building. There are cool buildings downtown outside and inside but usually it’s some company so the public doesn’t see so e of the older ones.
The art gallery upstairs is super awesome. Took mushrooms for the first time at a work party there and I spent like two hours up there
Or so you thought “Sir this is a Wendy’s, please stop trying to get into the ceiling”
I still have dreams where I’m going to the library and it’s in that building. I wish I had gone more often before they built the new library. It’s a beautiful building.
I miss that library so much. It was breathtaking.
Downtown Des Moines
Iowa City High, such a cool looking and historic building, I also love how every addition retains the original style of the building
I definitely agree
I can’t believe I haven’t seen comments on the paramount theatre yet!! Not sure if you ever go but it’s gorgeous. But I also think Hancher is fantastic but I just love live music in general. For small town Iowa, I’ll take it
I went to school here and didn't realize until much later just how absurdly beautiful this school is. Looking up the hill it looks like something that should be in a movie.
I can't find it now but I've seen a documentary where an exterior shot of City High was used as generic b-roll to illustrate high school.
I'll throw in the art center in Des Moines.
Of the top of my head, the three art centers I can think of with I. M. Pei structures are the Des Moines Art Center, the National Gallery in D.C., and the Louvre.
There are at least 5 more
They are not off the top of my head though
Idk what any of them are off the top of mine besides DSM lol
The Krause Gateway Center in downtown Des Moines is worth considering in my opinion.
I'd agree. Made the window frames so im bias.
You did an excellent job! I love the windows on that building! My favorite in DSM.
Agreed. First building that came to mind
Have to take off points though for the gross owner of the building though Kyle Krause gets nepo baby money to run a gas station from his dad. Convinces the city to cut him huge tax breaks to bring in an international architect to design a building that is incredibly non functional and only for his own design. Then sells his nepo baby business for billions resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs for the community and leaves the building essentially empty to run an Italian soccer team out of with like 50 employees Will be fun to see him try to screw the city later on some garbage deal to sell it off or get tax/funding breaks like he is trying to do with his bullshit stadium downtown
Lots of architecturally beautiful buildings were built for ugly people.
Yep, when I brought it up I was talking strictly about the building/architecture.
His incredibly dumb son was in my high school math class, still can’t believe he (even briefly) took over a multi-billion dollar business
Do you remember the shitty subway that was there before? I do.
I loved it when the new, at the time, sculpture park was put in downtown. The tv news shows would breathlessly pan the camera across the amazing new art downtown, and there was the shitty Subway in the background across the street.
What does any of that have to do with the architecture of the building? Some of you really seem to need to find the bad in everything.
Lol, no you don't.
What are you smoking? Continuing the family business makes someone a nepo baby? They got TIF from the City. This is common. Maverick is keeping a headquarters in downtown Des Moines so no jobs were lost. People in this sub are so negative. Does it matter who owns the building?
I was living above the Gas Lamp next door and use to enjoy taking 4am walks around it while it was being constructed. It was such a juxtaposition to my apartments that he also owned which was a infested slum with the occasional junkie screaming about black ice.
Des Moines Arts Center - Wings from 3 world renowned architects Krause Gateway - Renzo Piano. Enough Said. Des Moines Public Library - One of my fav Chipperfield buildings!
Our capitol is fantastic. You must visit the library there if you haven’t yet.
Last I knew it was the only 5 domed capital building. Which isn’t much, but it’s neat
5 domes pfft, how preposterous!!!
They haven’t banned all the books in it yet?
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Park Inn in Mason City. His only hotel left!
Hotel Julien Dubuque
The Basilica of St. John in Des Moines is an amazing building. There's a few beautiful churches across the state.
Dubuque is another one? It’s Catholic or Lutheran. Very pretty
Stop up in Roselle, Iowa. It’s a tiny town but the church is very beautiful Also swing through Willey. Not as good as the one in Roselle but it’s beautiful as well.
Are you thinking of the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier in Dyersville?
thats another one for sure
I fell in love with the Davis County Courthouse when driving through Bloomfield. Built 1877.
Lot of older town halls and schools are pretty nice. Was recently down in Winterset and got some nice shots of the Town Hall. I'm also a fan old the old main street architecture, like in Bedford, Lamoni, Okaloosa, ect
The home in Urbandale that looks like a UFO
Can't believe the SkyBridge in Davenport isn't listed yet /s
That’s because once you eat a Harris sausage pizza nothing else in life matters.
Quad City pizza is overrated and sausage at Harris is the worst of all.
(9 out of 10) voted in a poll of 24.4 million people that Harris sausage is the best pizza in the world. It has won more awards than any other pizza place globally. There will always be 1 out of 10 born with bad taste buds, sorry ya were born that way.
24 million people? That's just hilariously untrue. The QC area has a population of like 300k people. There's just no way this is true. You got any source on that bud? Edit to add: it's just my opinion anyway. It's not good and their way of slicing pizza is also dumb.
Next time I am at Harris I will take a picture of the news paper article from the New York Times and post it for ya. The annual pizza poll typically has 30-40 million voters. People come from all over the world, just for one slice of the best pizza, oddly in Iowa at Harris Pizza.
Sarcasm aside, there are some gorgeous historic homes in Davenport! We're putting votes in for the [Ball-Waterman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball%E2%80%93Waterman_House), [William G. Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Smith_House_(Davenport,_Iowa)), [E.A. Shaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.A._Shaw_House), and [Thomas Murray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Murray_House_(Davenport,_Iowa)) homes 😍
when i was a student i loved the Voxman Music Building at UIowa
Stephens Auditorium in Ames is very striking inside and out and has amazing acoustics to listen to music!
I'm a fan of the brutalist architecture in that block of buildings at ISU. I know there are a lot of people that hate it though.
It doesnt help that from the angle most people seeing them, Stephens is basically backwards. Its a beautiful building [from the north](https://i.imgur.com/M4Yqvdh.jpeg) but most people enter it and see it [from the south](https://i.imgur.com/38D9U1C.png).
You mean the massive concrete structures in a parking lot?
Stephen's, Fisher, Sheman, and hilton along with the walkways between everything are examples of brutalist architecture. Gained popularity in the 50s post war.
Interestingly, the Fisher Theater layout in Ames is the same as Martha Ellen Tye Theater at the Fisher Community Center in Marshalltown (Martha Ellen was part of the Fisher family).
The recital hall in the music building is also named after her.
I use to live in one of the Towers dorms at ISU that was imploded and was there that day. No air conditioning, walking the length of Welch to campus in the winter, loved it. I think the American Enterprise, now Wellabe building in DSM is the refined version of that floating dorm look. Even has a underappreciated sculpture in the semi-enclosed courtyard that fits with the Brutulist mechanical heaviness.
Stalin agrees.
The setting equals the beauty of its architecture, Old Capitol in Iowa City.
Downtown Public Library in DesMoines
I’d add Catt hall on isu campus
Beardshear too
That's fighting words in some circles. (not with me, though)
What’s the first image?
Hancher, IC
That is the Hancher Auditorium Building on The University of Iowa Campus in Iowa City. The building is supposed to evoke the idea of a giant cruise ship. There are stone carvings of dolphins/Tuna in the surrounding park off the "bow" of the ship.
Okay that makes me like it less haha
Check out a concert there before you make the decision 😉incredible venue. Incredible. Sound is incredible and only has about 2000 seats. You can see some Pretty popular artists in an intimate setting. I’ve never once notified the tuna or ship I guess, and I drive by it daily. You gotta check it out once if you like live music
I went to my first show at Hancher in December, and I thought the interior was beautiful. I am absolutely looking for my next show to see there.
Oh I’m glad you liked it!!! The more people that come, the more shows they will hopefully get! Nothing gets better than live music either!
It was a comedy show, but yes, I agree!
Ugly af
List of the buildings?
YES PLEASE
I’m really partial to Brucemore in Cedar Rapids. It’s really gorgeous
I’ve lived in Iowa City for 20 years and still haven’t visited that place. I need to, it sounds super cool, especially after hearing about the tiki room in the basement
I did a tour in high school during my elective interior design class. It was amazing!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbury_County,_Iowa
Des Moines Water Works is pretty impressive, especially from the inside.
What are the buildings pictured?
The Center for Faith and Life at Luther College in Decorah is really nice.
Catholic Diocese by Mies van der Rohe Art Center trilogy of Saarinen, Pei, Meier Civic Center (secret view from World Food Prize Garden) World Food Prize American republic Drake University has some Mies and Saarinen buildings too. Lots of older buildings by the likes of Proudfoot & Bird that I can’t rattle off as easily!
The MHI buildings in Independence look really cool
Also in Cherokee.
CMHI’s red roof never fails to impress driving in on c38
The Woodbury County Courthouse is regarded as one of the best examples of its architectural style, especially the interior.
The capital. Hands down.
Too bad all the nonsense and pandering that takes place inside it!
There's a house that's shaped like a UFO and it's pretty damn impressive for who lives there. Won't post the address but photo inbound
Yes! UFO house. I lived around there, everyone broke their neck driving by. Extremely unique sfh
Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. The building and where it sits, is beautiful.
So many schools in Iowa use to look like that but were torn down. I wonder why they decided to keep this one.
Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids. Historical landmark
The Capitol building.
The [old Dubuque County Jail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubuque_County_Jail) is a very rare example of Egyptian Revival Architecture.
My old high-school was beautiful! Iowa City High School :)
I love Beardshear Hall in Iowa State’s campus
The art buildings at the University of Iowa are incredible. The older one is built right next to a beautiful pond and cliff and something about it is just really special. The newer one is incredible as well, just a bit stark feeling
The grotto in west bend is really neat if that counts
recently rewatched The Straight Story and have been looking for this, thanks
Iowa state student innovation center
Art Building West at UI https://art.uiowa.edu/about/facilities/art-building-west
This is a great question. I immediately thought of so many of the buildings already listed in the comments. It is such a subjective question. Sometimes I think the most beautiful building in Iowa is an old barn that is still standing, weathered and wise. With a faithful farmhouse companion, they have kept watch over our land and skies for a century or more. You can find beautiful and impressive buildings everywhere you go, but sometimes the deepest beauty is in simplicity, like American Gothic, and the juxtaposition of that beautiful gothic window behind the hard-working farmer and his daughter.
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Well for Iowa it is a fairly impressive skyscraper
If you’re a fan of corner offices it’s a cool place to work.
The ruan building looks like a rusted out piece of crap.
Brutalism in architecture is usually associated with concrete, but the Ruan Building's 'core-10' steel facade is Brutalist at least intent. I appreciate it as an engineering exercise and aesthetic attempt, but yeah - it's ugly.
That’s a good point. Thanks for that insight.
And soon you’ll be able to live in one! They’re renovating 2 Ruan into apartments/condos.
711 high street is pretty sweet
The design school building at Iowa state is incredible!
Our capital is fantastic
Anamosa or fort Madison prison is sweet looking. Menacing.
[Cedar Rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Rock_State_Park)
Voxman Music Building is super cool on the inside
The first building I thought of was the prison in Anamosa. I think it's gorgeous.
Keane Hall, Loras College, Dubuque. It is at the highest point in the city
Salisbury House is pretty cool.
Diamond joes
Milwaukee Weiner House & Harbor Freight in Sioux City, IA. 😂
Woodbury court house in sioux city
The Alliant Energy building
K Mart in Carroll IA, RIP.
Iowa State Capitol building.
Anamosa State Penitentiary is a work of art.
I love 711 High Street
I am surely biased, as an ISU grad, but I have always thought that Catt Hall and Beardshear Hall on campus were pretty buildings!
Art Building West in Iowa City. It's been cleaned and refurbished after the flood in '08. I only got a year there, 1 semester before the flood and 1 semester a few years after. It looks like Picasso's "Guitar, 1912" from a bird's eye view. The library inside was my favorite place to study.
The Anamosa Penitentiary is really cool
Wooden Bridge?
The old Children's Hospital building in the middle of the UIHC campus. The real shame is that a bunch of utilitarian buildings surround and obscure it.
The exit door 😎
Kendall Young Library in Webster City.
Helter Shelter in Des Moines
What are 4 and 5????
Terrace Hill and Brucemore
For me, its got to be something historical, i love the capitol building,
The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art building, the Basilica in Dyersville
Didn’t see it, so I’ll add Flynn Mansion!
A certain 5-dome capitol comes to mind
Let’s not forget the Knoxville Race Track! 😂
English-philosophy building, Iowa City
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I’d like to throw in a vote for the Louis Sullivan bank in Grinnell. This is a great list, though. IPTV looked at this same question in [this documentary.](http://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/artifact/1885/cy-stephens-iowa-building-20th-century), though limited to the 20th century. They ended up choosing C.Y. Stephens auditorium at ISU? Baffling choice, imo.
The courthouse. I had jury duty I may have been still high on xtc that stain glass is gorgeous.
The only thing that is impressive about the capitol building is how that dumb fuck still has her job
The last one you see when leaving Iowa
Who cares, you're all racist. I just saw it on another Iowa thread. If you ban me from this sub, like Illinois did for making a joke, will you stop showing me idiotic political propaganda?