Principal Financial Group owns 801 Grand, the office skyscraper you are looking at, and JLL Americas manages it. From here you can take in why this tower reshaped the city: at 630 feet and 45 stories, it is the tallest building in Des Moines and the state of Iowa. Its crown is an eight-sided copper pyramid, and a skywalk links it into the larger downtown campus run by Principal Financial Group.
Construction began in 1989, with the foundation poured in February 1989—38,860 cubic yards of concrete and 139 caissons drilled to support the weight of the tower. Designed by Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum, the project cost $70 million to build, with an additional $19 million parking lot financed by the city of Des Moines. You’re standing in a place that was once called The Principal Building, now commonly known by its street number, and that was planned to blend office space into the heart of downtown.
Picture the eight-sided copper pyramid crowning all 45 stories above you, with the skywalk threading this tower into downtown.