Wilkins Building Design & Architecture by Josh Palmer
An historic restoration
In 2014, a fire tore through downtown Des Moines. The fire burned the Younkers Building, the one-time hub of downtown shopping, to the ground, leaving only a shell and concrete frame of the Wilkins building next door. It took a few years, but eventually, a local developer with a love for the significance these buildings once held in Des Moines stepped in with a vision.
That vision guided us, as a part of the team at Neumann Monson Architecture, to help with the design to rehabilitate the site.
This extensive rehabilitation included a thorough assessment of the existing building and what was salvageable, a new underground parking structure, ground floor commercial spaces, loft apartments, and a tea room on the penthouse floor, replicating the one that many an Iowan girl was brought by their grandmother. The many aspects of this design required coordination with a large team of consultants working through the various aspects of the building code, including the connecting city skywalk and integration of functions in this multi-use building.
