Iowa City, Iowa 

(pop. 67,830)

 

Traveled to Iowa City for Thanksgiving with at my cousin’s house in nearby Coralville, and got a chance to snap some pics on a gray snowy day after Thanksgiving.  Sorry for any quality issues  - blame it on the Droid since my camera batteries were dead.

 

Iowa City was a territorial capital and became the first capital city of the State of Iowa, and is the home of the University of Iowa.  In 2008, flooding of the Iowa River affected much of the campus and central business district.

 

The Old Capitol building is now a museum at the center of the University’s campus. 

 

 

 

Old Senate chamber is now used for dissertation defenses:

 

In 2001, the gold dome caught fire during asbestos removal and renovation: http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/qctimes.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/2/e3/bcf/2e3bcf8a-3ec2-5d7f-8a56-a9794e5bd8f3.image.jpg  (AP photo)

 

The surrounding four buildings form an X around the Capitol and are collectively known as the Pentacrest:

 

 

 

 

Some other campus buildings:

 

 

 

 

Central business district starts across the street from the Old Capitol

 

 

 

Downtown transit hub

 

Downtown mall

 

County courthouse

 

Some downtown churches

 

Great Catholic architecture:

 

The other Catholic church two blocks away:

 

Nice church, brutal addition:

 

More downtown/campus:

 

 

Way to disguise a parking garage:

 

 

Iowa City’s tallest?

 

Ethiopian and Eritrean

 

Indian too

 

 

The Englert Theater reopened in 2004 as a performing arts center

http://www.englert.org/blocks.php?page=history

 

 

 

Great independent bookstore:  (www.prairielights.com)

 

 

Pedestrian mall downtown:

 

 

Urban playground

 

 

 

 

Deco!

 

Oh yeah, they have football too (across the river and uphill from downtown):

 

A tip of the hat to Iowa City:

 

But on a final note, this is just wrong…

 

It looks like a great college town. I'm really liking their football stadium too.

I really enjoyed Iowa City back in 2006.  It's a great great city.  Iowa has a lot of hidden gems I enjoy, actually.

In states that aren't exactly known for their big cities (Des Moines doesn't seem to get many people excited) it helps that there are some quality college towns, which are just about the only knid of small town I could ever live in. I hear Manhattan, KS is pretty sweet too.

I ate at David's Place while visiting a friend a couple years ago... some of the best Ethiopian food I've had.  It's one of many little cosmopolitan surprises Iowa City offers.  [And I certainly did a double take the first time I saw a Kum & Go  :lol:]  Thanks for the pics!

Nice looking town and handsome campus. In various travels across the state I've found a lot to like in some of Iowa's small cities.

Pleasant surprise!

 

I'm almost 100% positive it is the tallest.  I remember following a construction thread on this one.  It came out nice.

 

I'm almost 100% positive it is the tallest. I remember following a construction thread on this one. It came out nice.

 

It's a cool building with a great specialty grocery/bakery on the ground level - http://www.breadgardenmarket.com  We ate lunch there but it was raining/sleeting that day so I didn't get any better pics of the building. :(

I highly approve of the exterior design and street-level retail on that parking garage!  Is that tallest residential?  Surprising that there would be zero commercial towers.

I love Iowa.

 

Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, and Davenport are all fantastic, cosmopolitan small cities.  As a state, they're fiscally conservative but socially pretty liberal.  Gay Marriage is still going strong there.  Des Moines has lured almost all of the insurance companies from Hartford, CT and their economy is booming. 

 

Love seeing pics of Iowa City.  Thank you.