Nollen Plaza Charette
Many ideas for Nollen Plaza were discussed during an intense three days 3-day “charette” last week. A design team comprised of Ken Smith, a highly-regarded landscape architect from the Des Moines area with offices in New York City and Los Angeles, and Jim Campbell, an artist from San Francisco whose works include highly interactive installations and various forms of electronic media, arrived in Des Moines Wednesday morning, April 23.
 From a space with keen views to Nollen Plaza, the public began flowing in to Capital Square to offer thoughts about the future of this key downtown open space during workshop sessions throughout the day on Wednesday. While ideas ranged broadly, similar themes emerged: make it a space for all ages, create a draw, a destination, and a postcard view for Des Moines, continue to incorporate water, support outdoor community gatherings, and design the plaza with a balance of green and paved spaces. The design team spent the entire day on Thursday working out ideas for what Nollen Plaza could become. They considered the existing strengths of the space, the context of downtown Des Moines, and the input they heard the previous day. By Friday morning, April 25, preliminary design ideas were beginning to come together. A scheme that included a community plaza, an interactive media ‘cube’ and restroom, a children’s play area, a civic gate and waterfall, a community hearth and a garden grove were presented at an open house in the lobby of the Civic Center over the noon hour on Friday. 
Materials from the Nollen Plaza charette, including images of the proposed design, are available on this web site. The design is in its very early stages; next steps include development of the ideas presented at the open house, presentations to groups in the community, and estimation of costs associated with the ideas. You can also view them by clicking here. lease email comments about the design and/or indicate your interest in taking part in upcoming stakeholder committee meetings to planinput@downtowndesmoines.com. Special thanks to all who participated in the charette and to the collaborative efforts of the Cowles Foundation, the Civic Center, the City of Des Moines and the Des Moines Art Center who made the charette possible.
Nollen Plaza Background
Nollen Plaza was dedicated in the 1979 as part of the new Civic Center complex which replaced the recently closed KRNT Theater. The area was named after Gerald and Henry Nollen in recognition of their contributions to Des Moines commerce and culture; both were officers of Bankers Trust, which has become Principal Financial, and active in a number of civic organizations.
Nollen Plaza is a block square park containing a tree-lined grassy area on its Walnut Street frontage and the Brenton Waterfall and Reflecting Pool with surrounding steps that provide audience-seating along Locust and 3rd Streets. Crusoe Umbrella, a sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, stands on the northeast corner of the Plaza; this steel sculpture was purchased with private contributions and a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The City acquired properties for Nollen Plaza and the adjacent site (now Capital Square) in the late 1970s and early 1980s as urban renewal disposition parcels. This picture, found on Principal Financial’s web site at shows the approved design for the site owned by the City.
[Image of 1978 Proposal for Developing Nollen Plaza]
In the mid-1990s, a refreshing of the area was undertaken with new light fixtures and benches and major repair of the fountain/pool area
|
