I Grew up in Iowa, and was looking through the website www.absolutedsm.com and found some nice updates on the city and it's current projects. The city has a metro area of around 500,000 - 550,000, and is growing quite fast given it's in Iowa. Iowa is in the middle of the United States and is a mostly rural area except for Des Moines and a few other smaller cities. It is for the most part an overlooked state in the USA (except for election time, when it is the first state to have primaries, and therefore the first glimpse of who the country is going to put up for election). The state is usually associated with having a lot of white people, farms, and of being "boring" and quiet. I quite liked growing up there though.....

These pictures are borrowed, but they show the city actually has a nice skyline for a city of 200,000 and an urban area of 500,000.

These downtown shots were obviously not taken during normal office hours, or on a weekend...hence the lack of street activity at this time.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/1.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/9.jpg

The city has a very extensive network of skywalks (KM's of them) that connect dozens of buidings in the downtown area. The city has very cold winters and very hot summers (-31C sometimes during winter, 40C during the summer), and this lets citizens move around to offices/malls/parking garages without having to go out in the cold or heat.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/11.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/13.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/23.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/30.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/34.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/from20above20the20trees20copy.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/july04desmoinesskylineindianolaave.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/may2005skyline.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/skyline20ne.jpg

Here is some of the housing stock to the west of downtown. My grandmother actually lives in one of these towers.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/300020Grand20copy.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/366320Grand20220copy.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Lexington20Apartments.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Masonic20Tower.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/wesley20acres20copy.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/stone20mansion20copy.jpg

Here are some of the current residential areas under construction in the downtown area. The city/state are doing a complete reconstruction/widening of the cities main freeway, and this has created a large traffic mess for a few years now. The timing of this construction came around the same time as the downtown condo boom taking place in cities throughout the United States. These two factors combined have led to a huge amount of residential projects in the city center.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/2006july05eastvillagesquarea.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/2006sept24brownstonesongranda.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/waterstreetdone2.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/westgate4.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/whiteline2.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Woodland20Avenue20Brickstones2.jpg

The city is also the state capitol of Iowa, and the capitol building has the largest gold dome in North America. I've always loved this building. It would have been amazing back in the 1860's when the central United States was still full of open plains, indians and roaming buffalo to see this massive structure being built literally in the middle of nowhere.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/good20capitol.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/domecloseup.jpg

New landscaping project surrounding the capitol

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/West20Capitol20Terrace.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/2006sept24westcapitolterraceb.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/war20memorial20copy.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/monument.jpg

New Iowa courts building

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/iowajud1.jpg

Some of the new commercial/civic construction downtown

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/06july05wffinIIc.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/06july05wffinIIe.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/06sep24alliedexpa.jpg

Asian gardens next to future Asian Cultural Center

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/asiangarden2_august2006.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/basketball.jpg

New riverwalk with fountains/plazas/ice scating

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/pedestrian20bridge.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/civic20gardens3_june2006.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/civicgardens5_september2006.jpg

New central library

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/feb06centrallibrarydesmoinesb.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Gateway20Park6_may2006.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/grays20lake20park20bridge20night.jpg

New regional mall

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/interioreast1.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/interjctcmainconcoursesouth.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/JCWaterfall.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mainatriumjctc.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mercyeast_aug06.jpg

reconstructed ballpark downtown

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/principalpark9_april06.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Public20Library201.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Wells20Fargo20Financial20I202.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/younkers.jpg

Hope you enjoyed...I've always loved this relaxed, friendly, optimistic city.

Very nice pics!!! I've never been to Desmoines, but I want to go...if for no other reason than to visit the hometown of Slipknot! :rock:

spectacular! :okay:

Pretty nice. I love that Des Moines has all these in-fill developments to densify the city. I've been very curious about what the city's housing stock was like. This picture grabbed me the most. Maybe it was just because I was not expecting townhomes in a city like Des Moines. It's just so urban.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/Woodland20Avenue20Brickstones2.jpg

This place has lots of potential. It still looks kind of sleepy, but at least it looks to be growing pretty healthy.

Slipknot sucks:sleepy:

Des Moines peaked in population around 1970, and has pretty much been holding stead since that time. As a result of this, the city is fairly dense in its built up portions, with most of the sprawl and new growth exploding to the west of the city (for some reason it never really took off to the east or south that much, and only within the last 10-15 years going north). I was surprised as well at the level of central infill going on within the city.

Here is a shot of the west burbs that have grown by around 100,000 people in the past 25 years....looks like tan and white are the new hot colors! haha...

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/sprawl2.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/sprawl1.jpg

Bigger city than I thought. Very nice looking! Great pics.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/july04desmoinesskylineindianolaave.jpg

This is an awesome shot! :yes:
Believe it or not, I just asked my wife to "guess this city". She said, and I quote: "Chicago? New York? San Francisco? Boston?"
No joke. :yes: When I told her it was Des Moines, she was quite suprised about this city. I think it's a pretty good compliment to Des Moines, myself. :)
I mean, my wife doesn't really get into the whole skyscraper development thing like we do. But, that says to me that if she would think this, then maybe a whole lot of other people might as well. :)

Very impressive skyline and city as a whole, I'd live there!