This list of tallest buildings in Iowa ranks skyscrapers in the US state of Iowa by height for existing and proposed structures.
This list of tallest buildings in Iowa ranks skyscrapers in the US state of Iowa by height for existing and proposed structures.
| Rank | Name | Image | Height ft (m) | Floors | Year | City | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 801 Grand (previously The Principal Building) |  | 630 (192) | 45 | 1991 | Des Moines | Office |
| 2 | Ruan Center |  | 460 (140) | 36 | 1975 | Des Moines | Office |
| 3 | Des Moines Marriott Hotel |  | 365 (111) | 33 | 1981 | Des Moines | Hotel |
| 4 | Financial Center |  | 345 (105) | 25 | 1973 | Des Moines | Office |
| 5 | Plaza Building |  | 340 (104) | 25 | 1985 | Des Moines | Residential |
| T6 | HUB Tower |  | 325 (99) | 25 | 1986 | Des Moines | Office |
| T6 | EMC Insurance Building |  | 325 (99) | 19 | 1997 | Des Moines | Office |
| 8 | Equitable Building |  | 318 (97) | 19 | 1924 | Des Moines | Residential |
| 9 | Alliant Tower |  | 285 (87) | 21 | 1972 | Cedar Rapids | Office - Tallest building outside of Des Moines |
| 10 | Iowa State Capitol |  | 275 (84) | 4 | 1884 | Des Moines | Government |
| 11 | CenturyLink Complex |  | 273 (83) | 15 | 1928 | Des Moines | Office |
| 12 | Davenport Bank and Trust |  | 255 (77) | 19 | 1927 | Davenport | Office/Residential - Tallest Building outside of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids |
| 13 | Register and Tribune Building |  | 243 (74) | 14 | 1916 | Des Moines | Office |
| 14 | Cedar River Tower |  | 237 (72) | 25 | 1974 | Cedar Rapids | Residential/Office |
| 15 | MidAmerican Building |  | 220 (67) | 15 | 1995 | Davenport | Office |
| 16 | Plaza 425 |  | 207 (63) | 14 | 1983 | Cedar Rapids | Office |
| 17 | Dubuque County Courthouse |  | 205 (62) | 5 | 1893 | Dubuque | Government |
| 18 | The Chauncey |  | 191 (58) | 15 | 2019 | Iowa City | Hotel/Residential |
| 19T | Des Moines Building |  | 190 (58) | 14 | 1930 | Des Moines | Office/Residential |
| 19T | Quaker Oats Plant |  | 190 (58) | 13 | 1927 | Cedar Rapids | Industrial |
| 21 | OpenLoop Tower (previously Bank of America Building) |  | 186 (57) | 14 | 1966 | Des Moines | Office |
| 22 | Two Ruan Center |  | 185 (56) | 14 | 1982 | Des Moines | Office |
| 23 | CRST Tower |  | 180 (54) | 11 | 2017 | Cedar Rapids | Office |
| 24 | Veterans Memorial Building |  | 175 (53) | 10 | 1927 | Cedar Rapids | Government |
| 25T | Liberty Building |  | 174 (53) | 12 | 1923 | Des Moines | Mixed Use |
| 25T | Fleming Building |  | 174 (53) | 11 | 1909 | Des Moines | Office |
| 27T | Hippee Building |  | 172 (52) | 12 | 1913 | Des Moines | Office |
| 27T | Davis Brown Tower |  | 172 (52) | 13 | 2008 | Des Moines | Office |
| 29 | Badgerow Building |  | 169 (52) | 12 | 1933 | Sioux City | Office |
| 30 | US Bank Building |  | 166 (50) | 12 | 1926 | Cedar Rapids | Office |
| 31 | Polk County Courthouse |  | 160 (48) | 4 | 1906 | Des Moines | Government |
| 32 | Hubbell Building |  | 150 (45) | 10 | 1913 | Des Moines | Residential |
Note: Churches have been omitted from this list.
| Name | Picture | Height | Floors | Year | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Fifth | 466 | 40 | Unknown | Des Moines | |
| 515 Walnut | 359 | 33 | Unknown | Des Moines |
| Years as Tallest | Name | Height ft (m) | Floors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1884–1924 | Iowa State Capitol | 275 (84) | n/a |
| 1924–1973 | Equitable Building | 318 (97) | 19 |
| 1973–1975 | Financial Center | 345 (105) | 25 |
| 1975–1991 | Ruan Center | 460 (140) | 36 |
| 1991–Present | 801 Grand | 630 (192) | 45 |
There does not seem to have been any effort to document the tallest building in Iowa prior to the construction of the State Capitol in 1884. This list shows buildings which may have been the tallest in Iowa prior to 1884, excluding church steeples.
| Years as Tallest | Name | Height ft (m) | Floors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1840–1856 | Old Capitol, Iowa City | 114 (35) | n/a |
| 1856–1884 | Shot Tower, Dubuque | 120 (37) | 10 |
Other early tall building include:
Sacred Heart Cathedral, located in Davenport, Iowa, United States, is a Catholic cathedral and a parish church in the Diocese of Davenport. The cathedral is located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River to the east of Downtown Davenport. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Cathedral Complex. This designation includes the church building, rectory, and the former convent, which was torn down in 2012. The cathedral is adjacent to the Cork Hill Historic District, also on the National Register. Its location on Cork Hill, a section of the city settled by Irish immigrants.
St. Ambrose Cathedral is a historic building located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It serves as a parish church and as the seat of the Diocese of Des Moines in the Catholic Church. The cathedral, along with the adjoining rectory, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Davenport, Iowa, was part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1814, during the War of 1812 the British military, along with the Saux and Fox Indian tribes fought against the Americans near Davenport. In August, Major Zachary Taylor, later President, fought a battle east of what is now Credit Island Park, in Davenport. An outpost was set up at Fort Armstrong and George Davenport and Antoine LeClaire were stationed there.
The tallest building in the world, as of 2024, is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The title of "world's tallest building" has been held by various buildings in modern times, including the Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England, and the Empire State Building and the original World Trade Center, both in New York City.
The Church of All Saints is a parish of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Davenport. The church is located in Keokuk, Iowa, United States. The church building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as St. Peter Church, the name of the congregation that built it.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, formerly known as Grace Cathedral, is the historic cathedral in the Diocese of Iowa. The cathedral is located on the bluff overlooking Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1873, Trinity is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1983 the cathedral was included as a contributing property in the College Square Historic District, which is also listed on the National Register.
The Kahl Building is a historic building located in Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 2020 it was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District. The building also includes the Capitol Theatre.
The Antoine LeClaire House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is a community center that was built as a private home by one of the founders of the city of Davenport. It also housed two of Davenport's Catholic bishops. The home was constructed in 1855. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1992.
The Belmont Hotel is a twelve-story residential high rise built as a hotel on the Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1924. At that time it was the tallest building near the Capitol, and concern that it blocked the view spurred height-limit restrictions that are still in place. In 1990 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Churchill Building, also known as the Gay Building, is a nine-story, 134-foot-tall (41 m) high-rise building located at 16 North Carroll Street in Madison, Wisconsin. Completed in 1915, it was Madison's first skyscraper. It was the tallest building in Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee, and remained so until 1917 when the Wisconsin State Capitol was completed. The building, like many others built in Madison during the early 1900s, was designed in the Beaux-Arts style.
Holy Family Catholic Church is a parish of the Diocese of Davenport. The parish is the result of a merger between Saints Mary and Joseph Parish and Sacred Heart Parish in the city of Fort Madison, Iowa, United States. It maintains both of the former parish church buildings as worship sites. The oldest parish in town, St. Joseph, and St. Mary of the Assumption had merged in the 1990s. St. Mary of the Assumption Church, which became Saints Mary and Joseph, is located at 11th Street and Avenue E. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Sacred Heart Church is located at 23rd Street and Ave I.
John George Alleman was a missionary Catholic priest who served in the states of Ohio, Iowa and Illinois. He served as a priest in the Dominican Order from 1834 to 1840, after which time he was expelled from the order. He then served as a secular priest in the Diocese of Dubuque from 1840 to 1851, and in the Diocese of Chicago from 1851 to 1863. During his hospitalization in St. Louis, Missouri, (1863–1865) he was accepted back into the Dominican Order.
Davenport Bank and Trust Company was the leading bank of the Quad Cities metropolitan area for much of the 20th century and for the surrounding region of eastern Iowa and western Illinois. It was once Iowa's largest commercial bank, and the headquarters building has dominated the city's skyline since it was constructed in 1927 at the corner of Third and Main Streets in downtown Davenport, Iowa. It was acquired by Norwest Bank of Minneapolis in 1993 and now operates as part of Wells Fargo following a 1998 merger of the two financial institutions. The historic building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 under the name of its predecessor financial institution American Commercial and Savings Bank. In 2016 the National Register approved a boundary increase with the Davenport Bank and Trust name. It was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District in 2020. It remains the tallest building in the Quad Cities, and is today known as Davenport Bank Apartments as it has been redeveloped into a mixed-use facility housing commercial, office, and residential space.
St. Katherine's Historic District is located on the east side Davenport, Iowa, United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the location of two mansions built by two lumber barons until it became the campus of an Episcopal girls' school named St. Katharine's Hall and later as St. Katharine's School. The name was altered to St. Katharine-St. Mark's School when it became coeducational. It is currently the location of a senior living facility called St. Katherine's Living Center.
St. Patrick's Catholic Church is a parish church in the Diocese of Des Moines. The church was built in 1868 and is located southwest of the town of Cumming in rural Madison County, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Pope John Paul II visited the church while he was on his first pastoral visit to the United States in 1979.
The Arthur Ebeling House is a historic building located on the west side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The Colonial Revival house was designed by its original owner, Arthur Ebeling. It was built from 1912 to 1913 and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
John Crombie Cochrane (1835–1887) was a prominent architect in the 19th century practicing in Chicago, Illinois. He formed Cochrane and Garnsey with George O. Garnsey.
The Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in the central business district of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. At the time of its nomination it consisted of 43 resources, which included 33 contributing buildings, one contributing structure, and nine non-contributing buildings. In addition, the district also contains 33 buildings that are individually listed on the National Register. This historic district is bordered by four other districts: the Crescent Warehouse Historic District and the Davenport Motor Row and Industrial Historic District on the east, the Hamburg Historic District to the northwest, and the West Third Street Historic District on the west.