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Old 10-30-2012, 07:59 PM
 
Location: Middletown, CT
993 posts, read 1,767,623 times
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Hello everyone,
I was wondering if anyone knew why the Des Moines skyline looks amazing for its size? It rivals many metros over 4X its size. So I guess my question is, does anyone know why it built up?
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Old 11-01-2012, 07:50 AM
 
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
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Yes, for its size, Des Moines does have a nice skyline (although it looks better looking from the south vs looking from the north.

Reason? I'm not sure I know. My belief it that city leaders saw the benefits for supporting building downtown and were fornunate to have businesses and individauls who shared that belief. John Ruan IMO gets a lot of credit as he had a real appreciation for central business districts and thus built 2nd highest skycraper (Ruan) and much shorter companion high-rise, Ruan II. In addition, he built the Downtown Marriot. His dream was to build a World Trade Center Tower, but never was able to get the financing to pull it off.
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Old 11-01-2012, 11:42 AM
 
9,480 posts, read 12,294,079 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by capitalcityguy View Post
Yes, for its size, Des Moines does have a nice skyline (although it looks better looking from the south vs looking from the north.

Reason? I'm not sure I know. My belief it that city leaders saw the benefits for supporting building downtown and were fornunate to have businesses and individauls who shared that belief. John Ruan IMO gets a lot of credit as he had a real appreciation for central business districts and thus built 2nd highest skycraper (Ruan) and much shorter companion high-rise, Ruan II. In addition, he built the Downtown Marriot. His dream was to build a World Trade Center Tower, but never was able to get the financing to pull it off.
My favorite view is driving into downtown from the south. Looks really nice!
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Old 11-07-2012, 02:01 AM
 
Location: San Francisco
1,472 posts, read 3,546,959 times
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Its one of the top insurance company headquarters in the U.S. in addition to being the state capital, plus the main banking and commerce center for a couple million people (excluding those closer to the Quad Cities and Cedar Rapids). Toss in seasonal political attention and it keeps things humming along.
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Old 11-08-2012, 12:57 AM
 
Location: TN/NC
35,075 posts, read 31,302,097 times
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One reason it looks so impressive is because the larger buildings are clustered within a couple blocks. Going west from 801 grand a couple blocks you'll hit Sherman Hill, then MLK, then Ingersoll. Go east, you'll be at the river in a few blocks. The tall buildings are pretty much all neatly contained in that little clump. It's also so flat that I can see 801 grand clearly more than 10 MILES out from the Mills Civic HyVee in West Des Moines. The fact that nothing obscures the views makes it seem much more impressive than it would be in a lot of other areas.
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Old 11-11-2012, 04:56 PM
 
2,652 posts, read 8,582,247 times
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Insurance and financial companies. They are finding out that low rise suburban office space is far cheaper than downtown though.
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Old 11-11-2012, 06:01 PM
 
1,911 posts, read 3,755,076 times
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Don't forget low-rise space downtown. Wellmark for example.

The other part is, suburban WDM is simply a more desirable location than downtown. There is still this high school rivalry between downtown and WDM, which is generally reflective of the overall culture of Iowa.
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Old 11-13-2012, 08:47 PM
 
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
2,401 posts, read 4,350,122 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RonnieJonez View Post
Don't forget low-rise space downtown. Wellmark for example.

The other part is, suburban WDM is simply a more desirable location than downtown. There is still this high school rivalry between downtown and WDM, which is generally reflective of the overall culture of Iowa.
FWIW, Wellmark is technically a mid-rise building.

Mid-rise | Define Mid-rise at Dictionary.com
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Old 11-17-2012, 06:09 PM
 
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA
219 posts, read 455,504 times
Reputation: 161
Most state capitals tend to have larger buildings, not depended on their size but the corporate/financial center of states. Take Frankfort, Kentucky, with a population of only 25,000 (making it one of the smallest state capitals) has a pretty good skyline for it's size.
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Old 11-23-2012, 04:03 PM
 
178 posts, read 419,408 times
Reputation: 111
idk...it wanted to look nice i guess
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