Archinect - News

Artist Mary Miss gains injunction against Des Moines Art Center's planned land art removal

2024-05-06T11:41:00-04:00

The lawsuit filed by artist Mary Miss in federal court in Iowa last month has gained a preliminary injunction over the alleged breach of contract stemming from the Des Moines Art Center’s planned removal of her outdoor sculpture piece Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996). The news was shared by The Cultural Landscape Foundation last week following the announcement of her legal challenge in April. Miss had been attempting to stop museum officials from removing the piece from its grounds over maintenance concerns and said she was thankful to the court for issuing a temporary restraining order, which, she added, “opens the door to the consultations about the future of the site that were denied me.”

The 19-page ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa says the piece is, in fact, a “work of recognized stature” pursuant to the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). Miss and her team now plan on defending its status further in order to establish a definition for ...

Artist Mary Miss files suit to stop demolition of outdoor installation at Des Moines Art Center

2024-04-09T17:42:00-04:00

Artist Mary Miss has filed a lawsuit in an ongoing dispute over the planned demolition of her outdoor installation Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996) at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa.

A district court subsequently decided to issue a temporary restraining order against the institution’s plans, which were to be enacted on April 8th of this year.

Greenwood Pond-Double Site, Des Moines, IA, 1996. Photo © Mary Miss courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Miss, who is considered a leading figure of the Land Art movement, filed the legal challenge after The Cultural Landscape Foundation divulged the Art Center’s “secret plans” to deconstruct and remove the installation from its grounds over the deterioration of its materials and presumed adversity of potential repairs.

Greenwood Pond-Double Site, Des Moines, IA, Dec. 2023. Courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Miss is alleging a breach of contract as part of the suit, citing a 1994 agreement and seeking damages through a readi...

Snøhetta completes Vesterheim Commons, blending Norwegian and Midwestern cultures

2023-10-03T11:46:00-04:00

Snøhetta has completed work on the Vesterheim Commons in Decorah, Iowa. Part of Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, the new building and associated landscape seeks to “establish a new entry point and gathering space for a cultural campus.” Snøhetta served as the design architect and landscape architect for the project, with BNIM as the architect of record.

Image credit: Michael Grimm

The 8,000-square-foot building is marked on the street by a large wooden canopy inspired by boat designs. Off the street, a public reception lobby and event space “mirror the cozy and sheltered outdoor rooms of the surrounding park,” while upper-level galleries and a new digital production studio create spaces for showcasing art and artifacts.

Image credit: Michael Grimm

Image credit: Craig Dykers

Light is drawn into the lobby by a wood oculus above, while a flexible event space and new circulation areas create interior connections to Vesterhei...

BNIM completes Iowa’s Stanley Museum of Art behind ‘dynamic and kinetic’ brick facade

2023-02-20T10:28:00-05:00

The new Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa has opened fifteen years after historic flooding destroyed the campus’ previous arts destination. Designed by BNIM, the new venue serves as a learning and teaching laboratory for the arts and a hub for the wider campus.

Image credit: Nick Merrick

Externally, the new museum is clad in what the design team describes as a “dynamic and kinetic” facade of dark, warm brick. Complimenting the masonry characteristics of neighboring buildings, the material palette also references the academic and cultural brick masonry buildings of Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn, and Eero and Eliel Saarinen. Through an alternating composition of texture and finish, the façade changes character due to daily and seasonal changes in sunlight, creating varying levels of reflection and shadow.

Image credit: Nick Merrick

The museum is designed as a rectilinear solid form permeated by interconnected voids, creating what the team calls a “protective and respectful home ...

Snøhetta seeks to combine the ‘architecture traditions of Norway and the Upper Midwest’ with Vesterheim campus in Iowa

2023-01-27T10:43:00-05:00

Snøhetta has unveiled details of their proposed new building and associated landscape for Versterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School. Titled 'The Commons,' and situated in Decorah, Iowa, the 8,000-square-foot building will serve as a “dynamic new entry point and gathering space for a cultural campus,” with spaces including a museum, folk art school, and community facilities.

For the scheme’s design, Snøhetta chose a palette of what they describe as “honest and humble materials” to reflect Norwegian craft traditions. Locally sourced brick, a wood structure, and textured concrete walls unite to create a “tactile and time-honored sensibility,” including a mass timber wood frame fabricated in Minnesota and exterior brick walls sourced from Iowa.

Image credit: Moare

Externally, the scheme is defined by a wooden canopy marking the building’s main entrance, while inside, the ground-floor lobby is connected to the upper levels via a wood oculus. Flexible gallerie...

Populous' Field of Dreams park is this year's Ballpark of the Year winner

2021-09-09T17:58:00-04:00

The corn-fed Iowa baseball stadium constructed by Populous for this year’s thrilling Field of Dreams game has been named the winner of the coveted Baseballparks.com “Ballpark of the Year” award that began in the year 2000.

The pop-up stadium joins HOK’s Las Vegas Aviators stadium and San Diego’s Petco Park as winners of the magazine’s annual award. Founder Joe Mock explained that this year’s crop had represented the deepest field he’d seen since 2009, the year the new Yankee Stadium opened at a then-record cost of $1.5 billion.

Rendering courtesy Populous.

After some delays, the $6 million stadium was able to be completed in time for the August match-up between the Yankees and the White Sox that ended when superstar Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson sent a walk-off home run into the 12-foot-tall corn stalks behind the right-field fence.

“[We] were privileged to design the Field of Dreams Ballpark and bring the magic and poetry of the iconic film to life,” Populous senior principal Todd...

If you build it: MLB's corny new pop-up stadium gets center stage tonight in Iowa

2021-08-12T16:20:00-04:00

The game will mark the first Major League Baseball game ever held in the State of Iowa. MLB built a temporary ballpark adjacent to the movie site, with a potential capacity of up to 8,000 fans, and here are the latest photos, courtesy MLB.

Major League Baseball coordinated with commercial landscaping firm BrightView and a “creative experience company” called BaAM Productions to reshape the 159-acre former movie set in Dyersville, Iowa. The site is known to be a popular tourist destination drawing up to 100,000 visitors in a given year.

BrightView’s Murray Cook told the Des Moines Register he felt the result has a similar feel to old Comiskey Park, the legendary southside stadium that the White Sox team at the center of the “Black Sox” controversy covered by the film. "Obviously this one's in a cornfield," he added. Cook had consulted with MLB on previous pop-up venues at Fort Bragg and Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the home of the Little League World Series.

The new Field of Dreams complex was completed in time for the announced Yankees-White Sox 2020 game date, which was pushed back a year because of COVID-19. Local NBC affiliate KWWL has a pregame walkthrough of the field here.

Steven Holl's Visual Arts Building opens Oct. 7th at University of Iowa

2016-10-06T19:34:00-04:00

On Friday October 7th, Steven Holl and Senior Partner Chris McVoy will be on hand to officially open the firm's Visual Arts Building for the University of Iowa, which in addition to being the only building in the United States that uses an integrated hydronic radiant heating and cooling system in combination with a cast-in-place "bubble deck" (thereby eliminating the need to cool or heat air mechanically), is simply gorgeous.

In a signature Steven Holl move, the interior is illuminated by seven vertical cutouts that are defined by the slide and jostle of the four floors against one another. This shifting dynamic creates opportunities for a series of balconies and informal working spaces.

Check out our conversation with Steven Holl from earlier this week:

For the latest on Steven Holl:

A 'hidden' Mies van der Rohe masterpiece receives funding for renovation

2016-05-03T18:14:00-04:00

A boxy steel and glass building standing just three stories tall, the Catholic Pastoral Center at 601 Grand Ave. doesn’t command a lot of attention. But among local architects and history buffs, it has a cult following. “This is a building that appears in architecture textbooks,” said Jennifer James, an architectural historian... Now, the building is poised for a $10 million renovation that Catholic Diocese of Des Moines officials say will extend its life another 50 years.

The building in question, now known as the Catholic Pastoral Center, was designed by none other than Mies van der Rohe. One of the first steel and glass modernist buildings in Des Moines, it was originally known as the Home Federal Savings and Loan building and opened in 1962.

The building exemplifies Miesian geometry: its marble tiles, railings, and exterior form are all square. The renovation will replace antiquated plumbing, lighting, heating and other mechanics, as well as replace a hole left over from a skywalk entrance that was recently removed.

Architecture students' Dunescape-inspired design-build project transforms Iowa State University College of Design atrium

2016-03-04T12:54:00-05:00

Seventy-seven architecture sophomores in their second architectural design studio at Iowa State University spent the first month of spring semester developing an installation intended to redefine the College of Design atrium as a public space.

"Our interest was to challenge the conventional uses of the space, introduce new activities, etc. The only conceptual constraints were that the project must be practical, it must remain accessible to the public and the existing uses must somehow be preserved within the new design," said Assistant Professor Nick Senske, coordinator of the Department of Architecture's second-year studios.

Constructed almost entirely of 2x2 lumber and deck screws, the 25-foot-by-20-foot "TwoXTwo" project has transformed the college atrium by offering new opportunities for group interaction and individual activity. Throughout the three-week installation (Feb. 17-March 11), students are documenting via photos and video how people actually use the new elements within ...

Renzo Piano's Kum & Go HQ enters construction phase + new (better) renderings

2015-09-22T09:00:00-04:00

Earlier this summer, Midwest convenience store chain Kum & Go revealed a first peek at their new Renzo Piano-designed Des Moines, Iowa headquarters. The initial round of design illustrations were of a rather austere, CAD-like quality, and Archinect commenters remarked that the renderings failed to express how the project would relate to its urban context.

Now several new, photorealistic renderings have been revealed that help to get a better understanding of the 5-story building at 1459 Grand Avenue, officially dubbed the Krause Gateway Center.

↑ East View.

With construction fencing going up and demolition work of existing buildings beginning this week, the project is certainly moving forward. Presentation of updated plans to the Urban Design Review Board is scheduled for the coming days.

↑ West View.

All images courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

Renzo Piano's designs for Kum & Go HQ revealed

2015-07-02T13:49:00-04:00

When Midwest convenience store chain Kum & Go announced the selection of Renzo Piano as design architect for their new Des Moines, Iowa headquarters last November, speculations immediately ran wild about what the Italian master would put to paper.

The secrecy has now been lifted with the official reveal of the designs for the 5-story Krause Gateway Center, scheduled to open in 2018.

Scroll down for the announcement Kum & Go published, along with first design impressions, this week.

Kum & Go shared today the designs for their new Downtown Des Moines headquarters, Krause Gateway Center, located at 1459 Grand Avenue. The building was designed to provide Kum & Go associates a modern and highly collaborative work environment that offers flexibility for growth in the years to come.

The five-story building is being planned and constructed for LEED certification, and will feature glass prominently on all sides to provide transparency and light throughout the building. The layout was designed to...

Steven Holl's second University of Iowa arts building topped out

2015-03-24T20:48:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects is gracing the campus grounds of the University of Iowa once again with the recently topped out Visual Arts Building. The firm -- in collaboration with BNIM Architects -- won the competition in 2010 to design the new arts facility, which will house the studio departments for the School of Art and Art History. The Visual Arts Building replaced the original mid-1930s building that became heavily damaged during a flood at the campus in June 2008. The building is slated for a May 2016 opening.

SHA's design focuses greatly on forming new social spaces for students and faculty to gather and intermingle. The vertically porous facility will provide 126,000 sq.ft. of space for graduate student studios, faculty and staff offices, and galleries. Ample loft-like spaces will be allotted to the departments of printmaking, painting, photography, 3D multimedia, and sculptural arts.

Stairs and corridors that weave throughout the four-story structure were designed as "social cond...

Renzo Piano will design the new Kum & Go corporate HQ in Iowa

2014-11-20T15:57:00-05:00

Renzo Piano Building Workshop will be the design architect for the new corporate headquarters of Midwest convenience retailer chain Kum & Go. The 120,000 sq.foot building will be located at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. After competing teams submitted written proposals, six finalists were interviewed last month before RPBW won the project. In the next few months, a local architect and general contractor will be chosen as the design process begins.

UPDATE: Renzo Piano's designs for Kum & Go HQ revealed

Frank Lloyd Wright hotel reopens in Iowa

2011-09-08T13:05:36-04:00

Frank Lloyd Wright's only remaining hotel re-opened in Mason City, Iowa, a little more a century after the iconic, and often controversial, architect designed it.

What will a few design problems cost? $5,000,000.

2011-04-15T18:38:48-04:00

The county will be seeking to recover some of the damages, or expenses the county had to pay other contractors as a result of what we will claim to be HOK’s breach of contract [HOK] lacked coordination and completion and had conflicts, errors and omissions in the design drawings.”

It's unsure of who Polk County is actually suing since HOK spun-off its athletic and events business in 2008– HOK Sport Venue Event and HOK Group Inc. came to agreement in a transfer of ownership with shareholders agreeing to the buy out. In March of 2009, HOK Sport Venue Event rebranded itself "Populous" which was a stipulation in the previous buyout agreement. The Des Moines Register, KCCI Des Moines and the Daily Aljian, however, are reporting the potential lawsuit is against Populous, HOK Sport or HOK.

The lawsuit is the result of a 5-0 vote from the Polk County Board of Supervisors to reclaim $5,000,000 in settled claims, 15 in total, filed by contractors. The contractors allege that design errors and omissions caused them undue hardship during the construction of the facility. The county now wants Populous to foot the settlement bill. The Iowa Events Center was completed in 2005 to the tune of $218,000,000– HOK, now Populous, was paid $18,565,130 for architectural and desi...