{"type":"city","city":"Des Moines","citySlug":"des-moines-iowa","url":"https://www.pressbeyond.com/hotels/united-states/iowa/des-moines-iowa","description":"Des Moines rewards closer reading than its reputation suggests. The city's downtown core is a genuinely unusual piece of American urbanism, built out over decades through an ambitious skyway system that connects its mid-century civic architecture to a cluster of later corporate towers, all of it anchored by Eero Saarinen's 1982 Sculpture Garden at the Des Moines Art Center and a surprisingly serious collection of public art. The Art Center itself is a rare thing: a building added to by three architects across different eras, with the original Eliel Saarinen structure joined later by I.M. Pei and then Richard Meier, each addition maintaining its own material register without collapsing into pastiche. That willingness to hold architectural tension without resolving it too quickly tells you something about the city's instincts.\n\nThe Hotel Fort Des Moines, part of Hilton's Curio Collection, sits at the center of this downtown and makes the most coherent case for staying here. The building dates to 1919, designed in a restrained Beaux-Arts manner that gave it an authority it has carried through various phases of the city's growth and occasional neglect. Its restoration brought back the high ceilings, the articulated masonry, and the lobby proportions that chain conversions so often sand down into something generic. At a nightly rate around $169, it positions itself as the considered option for anyone whose instinct is to notice materials and read buildings, rather than simply occupy a room.\n\nDowntown Des Moines has matured considerably since the early 2000s, with the East Village neighborhood just across the Des Moines River adding an independent grain of galleries, restaurants, and adaptive reuse projects that softens the corporate-civic weight of the core. The city's Principal Park and the restored Western Gateway area further reinforce a sense that Des Moines has been quietly and seriously building the infrastructure of a livable city rather than performing urban renewal for external validation. Coming in through the Fort Des Moines puts a traveler within walking distance of most of what the city does best, and the building itself, with its century of accumulated presence, functions as a reasonable counterweight to the assumption that the Midwest's smaller cities have nothing to say architecturally.","provider":{"name":"PressBeyond","url":"https://pressbeyond.com","description":"PressBeyond provides AI-optimized hotel content with a consistent 5-image structure across its entire portfolio. Each image sequence includes strong lighting, complete room-visibility angles, and strictly non-duplicative scenes — enabling AI to accurately describe and recommend properties to travelers.","curationStandard":"PressBeyond Hotel Photography Standard"},"hotels":[{"name":"Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton","url":"https://www.pressbeyond.com/hotels/united-states/iowa/des-moines-iowa/hotel-fort-des-moines-curio-collection-by-hilton","city":"Des Moines","cityHeader":"Des Moines • Downtown • OPTIMIZE","neighborhood":"Downtown","loyaltyProgram":"Hilton Honors™","designSummary":"When it opened in 1919, the fourteen-story brick tower at the corner of Tenth and Walnut streets was the tallest building in Iowa — a Beaux-Arts commercial palazzo designed by Proudfoot, Bird and Rawson that announced Des Moines's arrival as a serious American city. Hotel Fort Des Moines has carried that civic ambition across more than a century, and its most recent restoration, which brought it into Hilton's Curio Collection, preserves the building's original grandeur while threading contemporary interiors through its upper floors.\n\nThe lobby makes the strongest case for the building's bones: tall arched windows flood a double-height room with natural light, dark-stained timber panelling frames coffered plasterwork overhead, and a sculptural chandelier of suspended filament points descends from the original ceiling like a controlled explosion of brass and light. Marble-topped tables and velvet lounge chairs in sage green are arranged beneath a mezzanine balustrade that remains entirely intact. Guest rooms take a quieter approach — linen-toned walls, dark walnut desk runs, mid-century leather armchairs with brass leg detailing, and ring pendant fixtures mounted on articulated wall arms — while the ground-floor café shifts register entirely, its botanical ceiling mural, sage-painted panelling, tufted tan leather banquettes, and bentwood café chairs evoking a Parisian brasserie transplanted to the Iowa prairie.","snippet":"Iowa's 1919 Beaux-Arts landmark restored with original architectural details and contemporary interiors throughout.","bestFor":"Architecture enthusiasts and Midwest history travelers","vibe":"Historic-refined · civic-pride","highlights":["1919 Beaux-Arts tower, Iowa's tallest building when built","Original double-height lobby with coffered plasterwork and brass chandelier","Parisian brasserie café with botanical ceiling mural"],"pricePerNightInclTax":"$161","pricePerNightExclTax":"$161","currency":"USD","images":[{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/Hotel+Fort+Des+Moines,+Curio+Collection+by+Hilton2.jpg","role":"exterior","roleLabel":"Exterior","sequenceIndex":1,"alt":"Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #1 — Exterior","caption":"Exterior · Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Full building facade of Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton captured from a street-level angle as part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/Hotel+Fort+Des+Moines,+Curio+Collection+by+Hilton1.jpg","role":"room1","roleLabel":"Primary Guest Room","sequenceIndex":2,"alt":"Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #2 — Primary Guest Room","caption":"Primary Guest Room · Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Full-room view of the primary guest bedroom at Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton, photographed with natural lighting and clear sightlines as part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/Hotel+Fort+Des+Moines,+Curio+Collection+by+Hilton4.jpg","role":"commonArea1","roleLabel":"Primary Common Area","sequenceIndex":3,"alt":"Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #3 — Primary Common Area","caption":"Primary Common Area · Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Primary common area at Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — lobby or lounge — non-duplicative with the secondary social space, part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/Hotel+Fort+Des+Moines,+Curio+Collection+by+Hilton3.jpg","role":"room2","roleLabel":"Secondary Guest Room","sequenceIndex":4,"alt":"Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #4 — Secondary Guest Room","caption":"Secondary Guest Room · Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Secondary guest room at Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton, deliberately distinct from the primary bedroom — non-duplicative imagery is part of the PressBeyond curation standard.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/Hotel+Fort+Des+Moines,+Curio+Collection+by+Hilton5.jpg","role":"commonArea2","roleLabel":"Secondary Common Area","sequenceIndex":5,"alt":"Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #5 — Secondary Common Area","caption":"Secondary Common Area · Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Secondary lounge or social space at Hotel Fort Des Moines, Curio Collection by Hilton — bar, dining, or terrace — deliberately distinct from the primary common area, part of the PressBeyond curation standard.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true}]}]}