Des Moines, Iowa, USA
The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center by BNIM with landscape architects Genus is a new facility for the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement including dedicated offices, research spaces, and a center for community engagement.
The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University serves as a new home for the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement, which is focused on improving the lives of all Americans by giving policymakers access to high-quality information and engaging citizens as active participants in the formation of public policy.
The building supports the Institute’s work in programs aligned with the important issues for humanity embodied in the career of retired Senator Tom Harkin, including labor and employment, people with disabilities, retirement security, and wellness/nutrition.
The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University has recently been awarded a 2023 Green Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The project team worked closely with Senator Harkin and Drake University to create a facility that reflects the Institute’s values and work by not only designing a sustainable, high-performing building that would be considerate of environmental issues and climate change but also incorporating new thinking about universal design and equity beyond ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) guidelines — one of Senator Harkin’s most important legislative achievements.
As a new dedicated office, research space, and center for community engagement, this facility demonstrates a beautiful, engaging, and inclusive design and seeks to engage the Drake University campus and community in a dialogue of equity and empathy.
Key university community stakeholder meetings were convened to organize programmatic, environmental, energy, and economic performance goals for the facility. In addition, the Harkin Institute’s People with Disabilities Core Advisory Committee evaluated universal design guiding principles in response to barriers that still exist today more than thirty years after the creation of the ADA.
This project’s driving spirit of empathy and inclusion weaves the guiding principles of sustainable design together to form a model of what sustainable design should be.
Considerations were given to the broad spectrum of human needs for all abilities, informed by guiding design principles categorized into Generous Space, Equitable Use, Individual Empowerment, and a Clear Path.
These guiding principles are reflected in numerous design strategies through providing generous circulation spaces that support sign-language conversations and multiple wheelchair-users; creating equitable experiences such as ‘meet in the round’ conference room configurations to provide the opportunity for hearing-impaired individuals to engage in conversation through undistributed sightlines; implementing lighting design that creates clear paths for individuals with low-vision or hearing; and establishing wellness rooms for individual empowerment.
The project team also pushed for policy, code, and zoning adjustments to establish closer proximity between the building’s accessible parking spaces and the front entrance as well as single-user, universal restroom design throughout the facility, which has established a precedence for future projects within the Des Moines community.
The main floor operates as a zone of public engagement, including a reception area, a small auditorium equipped with a lighting control system to support interpreters during presentations, a staging kitchenette for events, and a flexible gallery and gathering space that will show alternating exhibits, such as displays on ADA legislation.
The second floor offers a wide spectrum of spaces for meetings and individual focus.
The Harkin Institute staff, research fellows, and interns have resident offices on the second level, accompanied by focus rooms, collaboration and meeting spaces, and flexible, formal, and informal conference rooms that are dedicated to staff and student use.
Connecting the two levels is a graceful, ramped path that serves as the primary circulation and common path between floors for all building users.
The Disability Advisory Committee challenged the design team to utilize the ramp to connect floors and not rely only on elevators and stairs.
The ramp stitches the programmatic spaces together, providing both a physical connection between floors for all visitors and a symbolic visual sinew for the building that is expressed on the exterior and interior, binding purpose with spirit.
Project: The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center
Architects: BNIM
Design Team: Kevin Nordmeyer, Jason Kruse, Tina Wehrman, Jonathan Ramsey, Rod Kruse, and Lana Zoet
Landscape Architects: Genus
MEP Engineers: Gilmore & Doyle, Ltd., dba Modus
Structural Engineers: Raker Rhodes Engineering, LLC.
Civil Engineers: Synder & Associates
Client: The Harkin Institute, Drake University
Photographer: Kelly Callewaert
