Our Des Moines: The Dotdash Meredith mural that changes with the seasons celebrates 20 years
Swing down Grand Avenue driving east, and two blocks after you cross Fleur Drive, Grand splits into Locust Street. To the side is the headquarters for Dotdash Meredith, the magazine company that publishes titles such as Better Homes & Gardens and Midwest Living.
Depending on the time of year, you will catch a glimpse of a piece of artwork that routinely changes in Des Moines — a long vertical mural that spans four-plus stories. While the art doesn’t have an official name, it has become a tradition in the city since it first went up in 2002.
Back in October 2002, Meredith Corp., as it was called at the time, celebrated the company’s centennial by installing that first mural with a cluster of red poppies and the words “100 Years” at the bottom. The publisher decided to continue changing the mural, swapping out the artwork with the season using images from the pages of its magazines.
Over the summer, the artwork celebrated the 100th anniversary of Better Homes & Gardens with a nod to its first mural. This time, it featured pink poppies.
In September, the golden light of the season shines on an autumn scene of orange and yellow leaves on trees lining a road, an image from Southern Living magazine. Fans voted on their favorite from three choices on Instagram, a first for the publishing company.
The tradition has become a hit with those who drive the roads around Dotdash Meredith.
“We know this because when we paused installation this summer, we experienced an outcry from neighbors and media alike, wondering if and when the mural would return,” Erica Jensen, the senior vice president and chief communications officer at Dotdash Meredith, wrote in an article for the Des Moines Partnership.
She said that commuters look forward to the change, families discuss the mural with their children, and employees at Dotdash Meredith know that when the scaffolding goes up, crews from Des Moines-based Beeline + Blue are getting ready to swap out the image.
More: Take our walking tour of 12 Des Moines murals (and peruse our gallery of many more)
She promises that future murals will capture images from some of the company’s other publications, such as Food & Wine or Real Simple.
Of course, the mural is somewhat of a companion piece to the “Plantoir,” the oversized hand tool sculpture from Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen planted in front of the Dotdash Meredith headquarters.
Oldenburger and van Bruggen created the piece in 2001 with the intent to have it displayed in a garden. The 23-foot-tall sculpture, made of aluminum, fiber-reinforced plastic and steel, weighs 2,300 pounds.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden in New York displayed the sculpture from May to November 2002 before Meredith Corp. purchased it to celebrate its centennial, according to the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation.
Susan Stapleton just bought a new house in Oak Park and hopes to make the editors at Better Homes & Gardens proud with the garden she plans to plant starting this fall. Crocus, daffodils and iris bulbs are just waiting for the weather to get a little colder before she plants them. She's also the entertainment editor at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
Our Des Moines
Our Des Moines is a weekly feature on an interesting person, place or happening in the Des Moines metro, the kind of gems that make central Iowa a special place. Have an idea for this series? Contact chunter@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: This mural changes with the seasons on the Dotdash Meredith campus
