Des Moines architect Blunck found dead
BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Jan 25, 2016 | 8:57 pm
1 min read time
185 wordsAll Latest News, Arts and Culture, Real Estate and DevelopmentDes Moines police are investigating the death Sunday of prominent Des Moines architect Kirk Blunck, whose body was found in the Teachout building at 500 E. Locust St.
Blunck’s renovation of that building and others in the East Village helped launch the rehabilitation of the area in the 1990s.
In recent years, Blunck, who was a partner in Knowles Blunck Architecture, with an office in the Teachout Building, had come under fire for failing to repay development loans from the city, and for a range of city code violations that had allowed some properties, including a Sherman Hill apartment building and the Locust Tap in the East Village to fall into disrepair.
However, Blunck also was widely admired for his visionary instincts as a developer and architect. According to a police report, Blunck’s death was reported about 4:15 p.m. Blunck also had been president of the later-shuttered Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck architecture firm in Des Moines. Among their notable projects was the Hub Tower in downtown Des Moines.
His current and former business partners could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
Blunck was 62.
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