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The steel-and-glass skyline of downtown Des Moines, most of which shot up during the 1980s, is testimony to its ever-growing insurance trade. Towering above all is the boxy, 44-story 801 Grand building, headquarters of the Principal Financial Company. For such a fast-track financial center, the streets are curiously empty; pedestrians instead use the Skywalk , a three-mile network of air-conditioned corridors linking twenty blocks of offices, banks, parking lots, restaurants, hotels and movie theaters.

Most businesses stand on the west bank of the Des Moines River, which cuts downtown in two. In 1857, a group of speculators attempted to shift the commercial hub to the east side by bribing commissioners to site the state capitol at E Ninth Street and Grand Avenue (they apparently offered more than the Westsiders were willing to dish out). Their hopes of huge spin-offs were dashed when the nationwide financial crash later that same year saw property prices collapse. As a result, the five-domed Italian Renaissance-style mass, on the crest of a steep hill, is now detached from the heart of the city (Mon-Fri 8am-4.30pm, Sat & Sun 8am-4pm; free; call for tour times tel 515/281-5591). A short walk downhill, displays in the futuristic pink-and-brown State of Iowa Historical Building (Tues-Sat 9am-4.30pm, Sun noon-4.30pm; free) at E Sixth and Locust streets, cover Indian civilization, pioneer times and the development of Iowan farming, along with plenty of solemn portraits of former governors.

Three miles west, the impressive Des Moines Art Center , in a leafy suburb on 4700 Grand Ave (Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 11am-4pm, Thurs 11am-9pm, Sun noon-4pm; free), is housed in a trio of buildings designed by world renowned architects Eliel Saarinen, I.M. Pei and Richard Meier. Works by Matisse, Picasso and Renoir stand alongside twentieth-century Americans such as Wood, Hopper and O'Keeffe. The most dynamic exhibits are in the Meier wing, and include a gigantic and disturbing Anselm Kiefer canvas.