2025 SE Brown’s Woods Ln., West Des Moines
A prime example of mid-century contemporary architecture is for sale in West Des Moines, designed in 1964 for a previous director of the Des Moines Art Centre
Found throughout from the 486-acre Brown’s Woods, Iowa’s most significant city forest, the three-bedroom, three-rest room, 1,939-square-foot ranch residence is hidden from view on its own .76-acre, tree-filled large amount.
Restored about the very last two decades, former Des Moines Art Heart director Thomas Stansbury Tibbs at first laid claim to the putting structure. But regardless of continued initiatives browsing archives, town information and neighborhood architectural documents, no paperwork to back up his assertion has nevertheless been found.
“It’s a pretty mysterious thriller,” reported Rhiannon Barbour, who is symbolizing the vendor.
Admitting the home’s design appeals to an distinctive sector of the market, Barbour is assured the appropriate homebuyer will eventually be uncovered.
“I really like the simplicity, how understated it is, but it is stunning,” she reported.
Tibbs was the Art Center’s director from 1960-68 and was instrumental in using the services of New York Town architect I.M. Pei to build a $1.6 million addition to the Artwork Middle. Pei’s 18,000-square-foot wing debuted in Oct 1968, featuring an exposed concrete exterior that presented an immediate distinction to architect Eliel Saarinen’s 20-year outdated constructing.
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Tibbs’ home on Brown’s Woods Lane has been through a collection of upgrades because he remaining in 1968 and now characteristics a sunroom, laundry place, a porch with sights of the close by pool and woodlands, a mud space and an hooked up two-automobile garage.
The current house owners have additional a detached 1,800-sq.-foot combination garage and art studio, outfitted with a hydraulic car lift, and LED lighting to superior facilitate automobile painting and restoration.
Inside of the key residence, the master bed room includes an en-suite lavatory and the kitchen area has been reworked with new appliances and countertops. The wooden floors and beamed ceilings have been refinished and the significant home windows make certain an abundance of normal gentle.
The open program area “is not definitely established up to have a household with two or 3 youngsters,” Barbour said. But the available layout was a immediate outcome of Tibbs facilitating his wife Ruth’s recovery next a stroke.
Partner and spouse team Denika and Brad Almburg of Mod House Assortment and Almburg Homes had been prior homeowners of the house when it was nonetheless protected in vines and overgrowth. The pair started the home’s early conservation and restoration.
“He really created that home to accommodate her right after her stroke, and her caretaker,” Denika Almburg said.
All through the pandemic, Almburg’s conversations with nearby architects “confirmed our beliefs that it was any person experienced in architecture that developed it,” she stated.
No paperwork have been uncovered to reveal Tibbs gained any teaching to changeover from a museum director into a subtle newbie architect.
Despite that anomaly, Almburg continues to be a good admirer of the assets and also Tibbs’ career at the Artwork Middle. “My take on him is that he was just a ahead thinker, a imaginative man who pushed the envelope here in Des Moines, and Des Moines was too conservative to recognize some of what he was doing,” she stated.
The property is listed at $699,000 by Rhiannon Barbour of Realty A single Team and DSM Present day Genuine Estate. Speak to (515) 446-7524 to tour this home or equivalent qualities.
Richard Lane is the actual estate reporter for the Des Moines Sign-up. He can be achieved at [email protected].
