The Ruan Center is a high-rise office building located at 666 Grand Avenue in

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, which was built by Ruan Transportation. The building was completed in 1975 and stands at a height of , and was the tallest building in Iowa until the completion of

801 Grand 801 Grand High Rise Building (referred to as the 801 Grand Building and previously known as The Principal Building) is an office skyscraper in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, operated and managed by JLL Americas and owned by Principal Finan ...

in 1991. The south side of the building's site was formerly occupied by The Chamberlain Hotel. The Ruan Center is locally known as the "rusty skyscraper", for its

Cor-Ten steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painting ...

cladding that sheds rust.Bizz Buzz. ''Des Moines Register'', April 21, 2009, http://m.dmregister.com/news.jsp?key=448716 The exterior skin is composed of 1,600 US tons of Cor-Ten steel, and 4,700 tons of structural steel were used in the building's frame. The building consists mainly of office space and is connected to Des Moines' skywalk system. The 33rd and 34th floors are home to the Des Moines Club, a private members-only restaurant. The Ruan Center was named one of the 50 Most Significant Iowa Buildings of the 20th Century by the Iowa chapter of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

. Along with the neighboring Two Ruan Center, also known as the Carriers Building, Ruan Center was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2025. Completed in 1982, Two Ruan Center was built as the headquarters for long-haul trucking liability insurer Carriers Insurance Company. The company became insolvent in 1986 and the building's name was changed to Two Ruan Center later the same year. Plans have been developed to turn Two Ruan Center into an apartment building.

References

External links

Ruan Website
Two Ruan Center - Des Moines

Office buildings completed in 1975 Skyscraper office buildings in Des Moines, Iowa Modernist architecture in Iowa 1975 establishments in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa {{DesMoinesIA-stub

See also

References

External links