Krause Building ASI Signage Header2

Sig­nage For A Work Of Art: Krause Gate­way Center

Steps from the Pap­pa­john Sculp­ture Gar­den in down­town Des Moines is a new build­ing that’s sure to be an icon­ic piece of Iowa archi­tec­ture: the Krause Gate­way Cen­ter. Lat­i­tude part­nered with Ryan Com­pa­nies for the sig­nage por­tion of this project.

Krause Exterior Monument1

Steps from the Pap­pa­john Sculp­ture Gar­den in down­town Des Moines is a new build­ing that’s sure to be an icon­ic piece of Iowa archi­tec­ture: the Krause Gate­way Cen­ter. Designed by Ital­ian archi­tect Ren­zo Piano Build­ing Work­shop with OPN Archi­tects, this stun­ning build­ing with soar­ing glass pan­el walls hous­es the cor­po­rate offices of Kum & Go and oth­er Krause Group businesses.

“While some saw this as a con­struc­tion project for an office build­ing, it’s tru­ly a work of art,” says Tony Squire, Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Man­ag­er for Lat­i­tude. ​“The design and exe­cu­tion of every ele­ment with­in the build­ing is stun­ning. Set along­side the back­drop of the sculp­ture park, the Krause Gate­way Cen­ter is a piece of mod­ern art.” Tony and the Lat­i­tude team part­nered with Des Moines-based Ryan Com­pa­nies for the sig­nage por­tion of this project.

The Kuhlmann Leav­itt, Inc. sign pack­age for the Krause Gate­way Cen­ter had the goal of blend­ing seam­less­ly with the building’s min­i­mal­ist design. While cre­at­ing dis­creet sig­nage may sound sim­ple, it was an incred­i­bly com­plex task that required count­less sam­ples to make sure the Lat­i­tude team got every­thing exact­ly on target.

Latitude Signage executed the signage package flawlessly. Their team was committed to ensuring both the owner and architect were happy and their team worked very hard to meet the extremely critical schedule dates. Latitude Signage was an excellent teammate on this project and their signage was the jewelry on this beautiful building.

Kayla Handsaker, project manager, Ryan Companies.
Krause ADA Boardroomsignage

Sig­nage Ded­i­cat­ed to the Details

Krause Custom Elevator Signage

One exam­ple of the team’s pre­cise eye for details was with ele­va­tor sig­nage. Stain­less steel on the ele­va­tor shaft has a ver­ti­cal grain, so Lat­i­tude had to source a stain­less-steel prod­uct that per­fect­ly repli­cat­ed the look. The solu­tion was to use one ven­dor who could pro­duce the desired ver­ti­cal brushed pat­tern, and anoth­er ven­dor who could place the ADA required Braille ele­ments, and final­ly the Lat­i­tude pro­duc­tion team added the tac­tile graph­ics at the Grin­nell facil­i­ties. The results are so flaw­less the aver­age per­son using the ele­va­tor will nev­er notice the hard work that went into craft­ing the seam­less design. Mis­sion accomplished.

Signage was so important on this project. Our client, needed everything to blend in with its surroundings. So everything had to match and fit precisely and also function without drawing any unnecessary attention to the sign.

Kalyn Durr, Latitude Project Manager
Environmental Graphics Krause Gateway

Sourc­ing Greek Dou­glas Fir for Signage

Krause ADA Restroom Wood

A very unique aspect of this project was to craft wood-look signs that matched some of the walls in the build­ing. Both used the same prod­uct, a dou­glas fir veneer and var­nish, import­ed from Greece.

“The veneer is very del­i­cate,” says Durr. ​“Luck­i­ly our pro­duc­tion man­ag­er is a con­nois­seur of wood prod­ucts and knew how to store and han­dle the prod­uct to ensure that there was no oppor­tu­ni­ty for light dam­age.”

Going the extra mile to secure this wood prod­uct gives the direc­tion­al sig­nage through­out Krause Gate­way Cen­ter the same rich feel as the dis­tinc­tive wood walls.

No Detail Too Small

From col­or match­ing acrylic signs to mim­ic inte­ri­or paint col­ors, con­crete, and met­al beams to the instal­la­tion of park­ing signs, there was no ele­ment over­looked. Even in the under­ground park­ing garage, Lat­i­tude per­fect­ed the spec­i­fi­ca­tions for signage.

“The over­head signs in the park­ing garage required pre­cise mea­sure­ments,” says Ash­ley LaRue, Pro­duc­tion Design­er. ​“With angled ceil­ings and vary­ing heights, it was cru­cial to triple check the length of each ceil­ing-mount­ed post so that all signs could be installed with prop­er clear­ance. It was a matrix of details to pro­duce and install signs that seem so straight forward.”

Above ground, vinyl signs on glass walls and doors are anoth­er game chang­er. In a build­ing with pri­mar­i­ly glass walls and doors, adding dis­trac­tion dots and push/​pull signs were essen­tial for a bustling work­place. Again, pre­ci­sion was key. Lat­i­tude worked with the inte­ri­or design­er to per­fect the lev­el of opac­i­ty for the dis­trac­tion strips, which were designed as cir­cles exact­ly 4‑inches apart on center.

Per­fect­ing these func­tion­al ele­ments sup­ports the con­sis­ten­cy seen through­out the min­i­mal­ist style of Krause Gate­way Cen­ter. ​“If you walk around the build­ing with a dis­cern­ing eye, you notice noth­ing is out of place,” Durr says. ​“You can feel the pre­ci­sion in the space. And that is no acci­dent.”

Beau­ty of Simplicity

“We’re extreme­ly proud of this project,” Durr says. ​“It’s as close to per­fect as it can be, and every­one on our team made that pos­si­ble. The signs may look sim­ple, and walk­ing by you’d nev­er know how com­plex it was to have signs blend in so seam­less­ly. And that’s the beau­ty of it.”

Related Case Studies