All Articles

“Workaday Ghosts,” an art installation by Pete Goché, assistant professor of architecture, has replaced the former billboard atop the one-story annex of the Argonne building in downtown Des Moines. Read more in March 31 Des Moines Business Record story

The artwork includes the flywheel from the original Argonne elevator, which represents the Industrial Age and is a reference to the people who once lived in the Argonne and worked at the Ford assembly plant once located across the street. The installation also includes galvanized pipe and copper wire attached to the heavy metal framework that supported the billboard. The galvanized rods will “create a dynamic ghostly (phenomenological) effect” by reflecting the sky and sun differently at different times of the day and year, Goché says in his artist’s statement.

The artwork will be lit from below at night and is augmented by artifacts from the industrial era, including a vintage loudspeaker and a buoy.