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...

Mayors across U.S. voice their struggles in tackling housing crisis and homelessness

2023-01-20T12:29:00-05:00

Mayors across a variety of American towns and cities have used the U.S. Conference of Mayors to voice concerns about their ability to address the dual crises of housing affordability and homelessness. As reported by Politico, specific struggles shared by mayors include attracting investors, housing density, and racial disparities.

“At the end of the day, as mayors, people aren’t looking to their senators to solve homelessness,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed told the conference in Washington, D.C. “They’re not looking to their state legislators to solve homelessness. They’re looking to their mayor.”

Meanwhile, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney warned that “parasitic” investors, who either undervalue or abandon properties, exclusively operate short-term rentals, flip homes, or price individual families out of the housing market, are having a detrimental impact across the city, including in low-income an...

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.

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...

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

Sasaki Associates, with RDG and AES, Wins Water Works Parkitecture Competition

2012-01-31T13:50:00-05:00

Des Moines Water Works, working in partnership with Iowa State University Department of Landscape Architecture, recently announced that Sasaki Associates, with RDG Planning & Design and Applied Ecological Services (AES), is the winning team of the Water Works Parkitecture Competition.