2020 Preservation at Its Best: Public Project The 1904 Winneshiek County Courthouse is a Beax-Arts Classicism style building. The approximately 26,700 SF courthouse is a key contributing structure to the Broadway-Phelps Park Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building remains relatively unaltered featuring ornate decorative plaster, art glass dome, terrazzo… Read more »
2020 Preservation at Its Best: Community Effort As Iowa’s only National Trust Historic Site, Brucemore is a significant tourist attraction in Iowa, greeting more than 1,000,000 visitors since 1981. The restoration is part of a multiyear, $4.5 million effort to preserve the 19th century Queen-Anne style mansion. The project focused on the roof slate, window… Read more »
2019 Preservation at its Best: Public Structure The iconic gold dome of the Iowa State Capitol has been one of the state’s most recognizable landmarks for more than 130 years. Over the course of its history, significant deterioration threatened the dome’s integrity. With funding from the Iowa Legislature, OPN Architects guided a project that involved… Read more »
Preservation at its Best 2018, Sustainability: Catholic Pastoral Center (Des Moines) After a nationwide search, Home Federal Savings & Loan leaders selected the modernist master architect, Mies van der Rohe to design the their bank. Mies’ 1962 design for the Home Federal building sets it back from the busy street corner to create a granite-paved open plaza. The tinted glass curtain wall suspends on black steel columns over a… Read more »
Contributed by Duane Boelman, Deputy City Clerk and Economic Development Director at the City of McGregor. The McGregor City Hall was constructed in 1917 as a Christian Science Church. After the church closed in the 1970s, it served as a private residence, doctor’s office, and a Masonic Lodge before becoming the McGregor City Hall in… Read more »
Preservation at its Best 2017, Rural Preservation: Reverend John Todd House (Tabor) While many other entities did important work on this preservation project, it was the Tabor Historical Society leadership team that solicited local funds, answered community members’ daily questions about the schedule, and continued to operate the museum through the years-long process of fundraising, planning, and implementing the project. They exemplify what… Read more »
