Downtown Ames, one of the most historical areas of the city, has been under reconstruction for three years. Coming out of the 90-year-old underground infrastructure’s face-lift, owners of downtown businesses said they are happy with the results.

One outcome of the project is the addition of artwork, made possible by grants from the Iowa Community Cultural Grants Program and the Ames City Council.

“The street had to be redone due to sanitary, sewer and water issues,” said Ray Anderson, city planner. “It just made sense to redo the whole street at that time.”

Jim Moore, owner of Jet Print, 301 Main St., said he remembers the construction. “The ground was torn up 18 feet deep,” he said. “Lots of businesses suffered because of it and some went under.”

The project was investigated by B.R.W., a consulting firm from Minneapolis, as far back as 1996, Anderson said, because it “took a lot of work prior to improvements being made.”

It also took a lot of money. The city spent approximately $4 million on the downtown face-lift, including a $15,000 grant from the Iowa Community Cultural Grants Program and $50,000 from the Ames City Council. The money covered renovations for everything downtown.

“The project included all of the renovation for the underground infrastructure as well as above,” said Bob Kindred, assistant city manager. “The overall budget was in excess of $3 million.”

The artist hired by the City of Ames, David Dahlquist, was responsible for proposing a plan for the renovation and incorporated four artwork elements, Kindred said.

“We wanted something that would relate back to Ames history and was also unique to the city,” he said. “Dahlquist came up with the idea of the railroad and incorporated four artwork elements for the project.”

These elements were the tiled planter at Burnett and Main Streets, a brick turntable at the Kellogg and Main intersection, lighted tubes along Main Street and terra cotta posts for 5th Street.

The tiled wall illustrates descending railroad tracks on the front. On the back of the wall are tracks going in different directions.

“I think Dahlquist was trying to show the difference between railroads then and railroads now,” said Letitia Hansen, curator of the Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave.

Inside the planter, prairie grass grows above the wall.

“This indicates how the railroads are not used so much any more,” Hansen said.

The light structures at Main Street intersections are perhaps the most controversial part of the downtown renovations.

They are about nine feet tall and at first glance look like a mixture of peculiar shapes. A closer examination reveals a display of various types of tools used during the railroad era.

The metal used for the design is from fabricating plants, patterns stamped out for real industrial tools.

“Dahlquist wanted to evoke feelings of early railroad industry,” Kindred said.

Amy White, manager of the Octagon Center, said the fixtures “are really unusual.”

“They were so different than everyone expected, but they must be working because people are talking about them,” White said.

Moore said although he was excited about the original plan, he “was disappointed in the finished product.”

The 5th Street brick posts seem to be a complete success, however.

“Dahlquist did extensive interviewing with Farewell Brown, city historian, and then designed 15 images that depicted landmarks and history of Ames,” Kindred said.

Some of these designs include images of the Dinkey, the train that ran from downtown Ames to the university; Iowa Agricultural College, Iowa State’s original name; and George Washington Carver, the first black student to graduate from Iowa State College.

Ames added a new pier in honor of Archie and Nancy Martin, who housed black students before they could live in the residence halls, on Feb. 9.

Everyone seems to be very pleased with the renovation and addition of art to downtown.

“This helped to get the arts downtown to build on in the future,” Hansen said. “When Main Street reopened, it had lots of new stuff to see.”

Anderson said the art has had “a positive impact on the look of downtown functions as well.”

Moore said he hoped that the artwork would draw more attention and more customers.

“This takes a lot of work on everyone’s part,” he said. “In the mall, they are all cookie-cutters. Downtown people are here because they are independent people – Renaissance people.”