The Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Des Moines Building, also known as American Federal Savings and the Catholic Pastoral Center, is a historic building located in downtown
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
, United States. Completed in 1962, it is considered to be "one of the most well-known examples of
mid-century modern architecture in Des Moines."
It was designed by the prominent
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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architect
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...
, and it is one of the first steel and glass modernist buildings in the city's downtown. Initially, the roof was designed to be suspended from two lengthwise trusses, similar van der Rohe's designs at the
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...
in Chicago.
That design was abdoned for a simpler and more direct design that features a steel-frame, glass-infill, and
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
and
travertine marble
Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...
on the base. The three-story building rises to the height of .
It was built for the Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Des Moines and later American Federal Savings, which failed in 1990 amid the country's
Savings and loan crisis. There was concern that the building would be torn down so the Des Moines City Council designated it as a local landmark. In 1992 philanthropist Ed Ochylski acquired it and donated it to the
Diocese of Des Moines, who converted it into their headquarters. From 2016 to 2017, the building underwent a $10 million renovation. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2017.
References
Office buildings completed in 1962
Office buildings in Des Moines, Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa
Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
Modernist architecture in Iowa
Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines
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