Des Moines home features striking midcentury design, mystery architect
2025 SE Brown’s Woods Ln., West Des Moines
A primary instance of mid-century contemporary architecture is for sale in West Des Moines, built in 1964 for a previous director of the Des Moines Art Heart
Situated across from the 486-acre Brown’s Woods, Iowa’s premier urban forest, the three-bed room, a few-bathroom, 1,939-sq.-foot ranch household is hidden from view on its personal .76-acre, tree-filled ton.
Restored in excess of the final two decades, former Des Moines Artwork Centre director Thomas Stansbury Tibbs initially laid declare to the hanging style and design. But inspite of ongoing endeavours seeking archives, metropolis records and neighborhood architectural records, no paperwork to back again up his assertion has but been identified.
“It’s a quite unidentified secret,” reported Rhiannon Barbour, who is representing the seller.
Admitting the home’s design appeals to an exceptional sector of the sector, Barbour is self-assured the appropriate homebuyer will finally be identified.
“I love the simplicity, how understated it is, but it is stunning,” she claimed.
Tibbs was the Art Center’s director from 1960-68 and was instrumental in hiring New York City architect I.M. Pei to build a $1.6 million addition to the Art Heart. Pei’s 18,000-square-foot wing debuted in October 1968, showcasing an exposed concrete exterior that provided an instant contrast to architect Eliel Saarinen’s 20-12 months old constructing.
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Tibbs’ home on Brown’s Woods Lane has undergone a series of updates because he still left in 1968 and now options a sunroom, laundry space, a porch with views of the close by pool and woodlands, a mud room and an connected two-car or truck garage.
The present entrepreneurs have included a detached 1,800-sq.-foot mixture garage and artwork studio, outfitted with a hydraulic motor vehicle carry, and LED lights to better aid car or truck painting and restoration.
Within the key residence, the grasp bedroom includes an en-suite lavatory and the kitchen has been reworked with new appliances and counter tops. The wood floors and beamed ceilings have been refinished and the massive windows make certain an abundance of organic gentle.
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The open up prepare house “is not genuinely established up to have a loved ones with two or 3 young ones,” Barbour mentioned. But the accessible layout was a direct outcome of Tibbs facilitating his wife Ruth’s restoration following a stroke.
Partner and spouse team Denika and Brad Almburg of Mod Property Selection and Almburg Properties ended up former proprietors of the house when it was however included in vines and overgrowth. The few began the home’s early conservation and restoration.
“He genuinely created that property to accommodate her following her stroke, and her caretaker,” Denika Almburg explained.
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In the course of the pandemic, Almburg’s discussions with nearby architects “confirmed our beliefs that it was someone experienced in architecture that developed it,” she mentioned.
No documents have been identified to point out Tibbs gained any coaching to transition from a museum director into a complex newbie architect.
Despite that anomaly, Almburg stays a fantastic admirer of the home and also Tibbs’ job at the Art Center. “My consider on him is that he was just a forward thinker, a resourceful man who pushed the envelope below in Des Moines, and Des Moines was far too conservative to value some of what he was carrying out,” she stated.
The property is detailed at $699,000 by Rhiannon Barbour of Realty One particular Group and DSM Contemporary True Estate. Contact (515) 446-7524 to tour this home or related properties.
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Richard Lane is the genuine estate reporter for the Des Moines Register. He can be achieved at [email protected].
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