{"type":"city","city":"Des Moines","citySlug":"des-moines-iowa","url":"https://www.pressbeyond.com/hotels/united-states/iowa/des-moines-iowa","description":"Des Moines tends to surprise people who arrive expecting the generic Midwest grid. The downtown core is unusually coherent — a walkable concentration of early twentieth-century commercial architecture, the glass-and-steel skywalks threading between buildings, and the gold-domed Iowa State Capitol presiding over the east side with genuine civic authority. The city has invested seriously in its public realm over the past two decades: the Principal Riverwalk along the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, the sculpture-heavy Western Gateway Park designed by Hargreaves Associates, and a warehouse district slowly converting light industrial buildings into galleries and restaurants. For a city of its size, the architectural range is quietly impressive, and the downtown retains the kind of human-scaled density that rewards walking.\n\nThat downtown coherence makes the Hotel Fort Des Moines the obvious and well-justified place to anchor a visit. The building dates to 1919, designed in the neoclassical commercial style that defined American city hotels of that era, and its fifteen floors made it the tallest building in Iowa at the time of its opening. The Curio Collection designation from Hilton means it operates as an independent-feeling property with its own identity rather than a branded box, and the interior holds onto enough of the original detailing — coffered ceilings, brass fixtures, the grand lobby proportions — to communicate genuine history rather than performed nostalgia. It sits at the corner of Tenth and Walnut, close enough to the skywalk system to be practical in winter, and within a short walk of the Des Moines Art Center's remarkable campus, where additions by I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, and Richard Serra's studio work collectively form one of the more undervisited architectural sequences in the American Midwest.\n\nAt $169 a night, the Hotel Fort Des Moines offers something that the convention-district hotels nearby simply cannot: a sense of accumulated time in a city that is still, in many ways, figuring out its design identity. Des Moines is not a place people typically put on a list beside Chicago or Minneapolis, but its ambitions are real, its public investments are visible, and its downtown has more architectural texture than its reputation suggests. The Fort, as it's locally known, is the right building to sleep in while you work that out for yourself.","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}]}]}