Museum director questions location of medical mall parking ramp next to historic Grant Wood studio

CEDAR RAPIDS – The tiny studio where Grant Wood painted one of the world's most recognized paintings may soon be dwarfed by a multi-story parking ramp.

Terry Pitts, executive director of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, hopes a compromise can be reached to mitigate the effects that the planned Physicians' Clinic of Iowa parkade will have on the historic studio next door.

The museum owns the studio at 810 Second Ave. SE, a former carriage house on the National Register of Historic Places, where Wood painted “American Gothic” and other works.

“I have a sense it's very big and very close,” Pitts said of the parking garage. “I'm just trying to make sure this gets thought through and make sure the bigger picture is looked at before it's finalized.”

The city Planning Commission approved PCI's preliminary site development plan last week. The plan does not have to be approved by the City Council.

Pitts sent a letter to the City Council and Vern Zakostelecky, the city's land development coordinator, citing the close proximity of the parking garage to the studio's property line.

A narrow lot will separate the parkade from the studio, but Pitts is concerned about the scale of the parking garage and the abrupt transition from a 21st century parking structure to the 19th century carriage house.

He said he originally thought the parking garage would be built along 10

^th

Street SE, rather than along Second Avenue.

Mike Sundall, PCI's CEO, said the parkade was always planned along Second Avenue.

He noted that there is a plan for green space between the studio and parkade.

“We don't want it to look like a concrete jungle,” he said. “We want it to have a campus feel.”

The city's Historic Preservation Commission also plans to write a letter to the City Council, supporting green space between the parkade and studio.

While Pitts would like the city to consider lowering the height of the parkade, commission members debated the value of retaining or even increasing the height.

The 4-story ramp will have 478 parking spaces, but PCI also plans to build five surface lots around the medical mall, including one at the site of a historic church.

PCI's medical mall will be built across Second Avenue SE, between 10

^th

and 12

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streets, closing that portion of Second Avenue.

The city has agreed to provide $13.24 million in front-end spending for the project's $8 million parking ramp and street improvements.

That funding is from tax increment financing – the difference between PCI's current property taxes and taxes on the new property for 25 years.

A skywalk will connect the parking ramp to the medical mall.

Wood used the carriage house at 5 Turner Alley as a studio beginning in 1924 and lived there from 1926 to 1935, when he moved to Iowa City.

“American Gothic” was painted in the studio in 1930.

Pitts noted that the museum just received a $750,000 grant to endow operating expenses of the studio, develop new programs and widely promote the studio as a tourism destination.

The grant also allows the museum to eliminate the admission fee to the studio, which reopens to the public in April.

Pitts said he doesn't oppose the medical mall, but hopes a compromise can be met regarding the studio.

“It seems a bad time to plunk a huge garage next to it,” he said.