National Register of Historic Places
American Republic Insurance Company Headquarters Building
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
The record
- Listed
- December 22, 2015
- Type
- Building
- Address
- 601 6th Ave., Des Moines
- County
- Polk
- State
- Iowa
- Contributing resources
- 1 building, 2 objects
- Coordinates
- 41.59005, -93.62528
- Reference number
- 15000917
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesIowa State University Geographic Information Systems Support and Research Facility and data providersDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The American Republic Insurance Company Headquarters Building is an office building at 601 6th Ave. in Des Moines, Polk County, built 1963 to 1965 in an Internationalist style. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Gordon Bunshaft as architect and Paul Weidlinger as engineer, and built by Arthur H. Neumann & Bros.
Why it's listed
It was listed under Criterion C and Criteria Consideration G, with local-level significance in architecture. Its period of significance is 1965, the year it was completed and dedicated.
Physical character
The walls are cast-in-place concrete and glass with granite aggregate cladding, and the structure is a concrete grid on a post-tensioned system. Two floors were added in 1969-1970, most glass-walled offices were removed in 2000, and a 2015 rehabilitation removed non-original walls to restore the original floor plan.
Historical context
American Republic Insurance Company, founded in 1929 by Watson Powell Sr., bought the Victoria Hotel site in 1962 and demolished it for its new headquarters. Construction began in 1963 and was completed and dedicated in 1965, when the company moved in with two floors left unfinished for future growth. SOM designed two floors built in 1969-1970, and the building received an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award in 1967.