Quick, name the metro that’s been on just about every annual quality list that matters: top 4 percent in America for quality of life (American City Business Journal); artist-friendly alternative to New York and Los Angeles (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); sixth-best golf city in America (Golf Digest); sixth sexiest, healthiest and safest place to live (Men’s Journal); third most-educated population among U.S. metro areas (USA Today); a top business opportunity metro (Expansion Management); No. 10 among the Top 50 Smart Places to Live (Kiplinger); and its latest list accolade: Forbes magazine named it the 2008 Second Best Small Metropolitan Area for doing business in the U.S.
And while Iowa City may not be the first town that comes to mind when contemplating the top U.S. cities for academics, business and culture, it certainly is known as home to Hawkeye sports. The University of Iowa campus surrounds the city’s pulsating downtown district, where the average attitude of pedestrians on the popular “Ped Mall” hovers around hip.
Creativity and energy flow throughout that sector known as Old Capitol Cultural District, especially during the free Friday Night Concert Series, the annual Iowa City Jazz Festival and the Iowa City Arts Festival. Otherwise, it’s restaurants, bars, boutiques, galleries, and hotels that bring in clientele of all ages and stages. Business groups in town join the beat, too, and the whole scene is just a tad over a three-hour drive from Chicago.
This is no rubber stamp town, and that’s part of the attraction. Locals point with pride to all the independently owned businesses they patronize in their has-everything metropolis.
An influx of outsiders are convinced, too.
“We have people who have come to live here from Europe, New York and Chicago because they absolutely fell in love with Iowa City,” says real estate developer Marc Moen. “About a third of our students are from Chicago. One of the reasons they come is that we are a 24-hour city—on the Ped Mall, you have boutique shopping by day, entertainment by night.”
Iowa City resident Maureen Patterson, editor of Archi-Tech, a sister publication of Meetings MidAmerica, agrees.
“Iowa City is a small metro area with all the big city amenities and none of the negatives like crowds, crime, traffic, and hassles,” she says.
The university counts for much of the city’s diversity, having cultivated a cerebral culture that’s earned global renown for research in genetics, biomedical engineering, science, and pharmacology, and its teaching hospital is one of the nation’s most comprehensive. Iowa scientists, including James Van Allen, have designed and built research instruments for over 50 successful satellites and space probes here.
The university also sponsors the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop, whose graduates have included such luminaries as John Irving and T.C. Boyle. The International Writing Program brings in writers from many countries.
“Lots of people ask me how they can have the kind of vibrant downtown we have,” Moen says. “I tell them to get a major university to wrap itself around theirs.”
The Indoor Club Lounge is located on the first level of the Brechler Press Box directly behind the indoor club seats. It boasts one of the best views of the playing field at Kinnick Stadium. This 3,200-square-foot space is equipped with a drop-down LCD projector and screen, making it ideal for client presentations and employee update meetings.
