Surety Hotel

When the Hippee Building opened in 1913, the 12-storey tower was the tallest building in Iowa. Originally home to the Iowa Loan & Trust Company and later known as the Midland Building, it was an unusually elaborate statement of American Beaux-Arts Classicism for the rapidly growing Midwestern city. More than a century later, Aparium Hotel Group turned it into Surety Hotel. Even the new name plays with its financial history: a surety is a guarantee that an obligation will be fulfilled, and surety bonds were part of the world of banking and commerce that once occupied the building.

Old Bank, New Currency

DLR Group and Slingshot Architecture approached the conversion as an exercise in balancing heritage and modern life. Original masonry, terra-cotta construction and historic architectural details were restored, while the former banking hall became the social heart of the hotel. Look up and the old coffered ceilings and ground-glass transom windows remain; elsewhere, even the original bank vault doors survived. The materials introduced around them deliberately belong to the same world: marble, artisan plaster, hardwood millwork, leather and gilded metals with the glint of old coins. There is nothing particularly corporate about this former bank.

The New Downtown Living Room

Like several of Aparium’s best hotels, Surety deliberately blurs the boundary between hotel lobby and neighbourhood hangout. The banking hall is now an open living room, functioning as a coffee parlour by day and somewhere for cocktails as evening takes over. A previously forgotten courtyard was reclaimed as an outdoor gathering and event space. It is a neat reversal of the building’s original purpose. People once came here to exchange financial currency; the hotel was designed around what its architects describe as a new form of exchange — social currency.

Midwestern Modernism

The 137 guestrooms occupy what were once offices, and their restraint provides a counterpoint to the grandeur downstairs. Maple floors, heathered tweeds, cognac-coloured plaster, green and burgundy leather and touches of copper, zinc and black create something closer to a particularly sophisticated Midwestern apartment than a conventional luxury hotel. The armoire became an unlikely source of inspiration. Bathroom entrances are incorporated into cabinetry like oversized cabinets of curiosities, opening onto marble hexagonal floors inspired by the building’s original tiles. And then comes one of those tiny details DNA Hotels loves: glossy green shower tiles reference the colour of money. Original works by local artists keep the connection with contemporary Des Moines alive.

Mulberry Street Tavern

The hotel’s restaurant brings another classic institution up to date: the neighbourhood tavern. Mulberry Street Tavern sits at the corner of Mulberry Street and Sixth Avenue, with an open-hearth kitchen and a hand-fired copper cooking line visible from the pavement. Inside, a zinc bar, stained glass, dark timber and deep red leather booths create the kind of warmth that encourages an after-work drink to turn into dinner and dinner into one more drink. That progression seems entirely intentional.

A City of Certainties

Surety describes Des Moines as the “City of Certainties,” a reference that gives the hotel’s name another layer of meaning. But its strongest connection to the city is more tangible. Instead of importing a ready-made lifestyle-hotel aesthetic, DLR Group, Slingshot and Aparium used the architecture and history already sitting on the corner. Banking hall becomes living room. Offices become bedrooms. Courtyard becomes gathering place. A financial landmark becomes somewhere to spend rather than deposit your money. Some adaptive-reuse hotels preserve a building. Surety gives this one a reason to be busy again.