The Krause Group is perhaps best known as the parent company of the convenience-store chain Kum & Go, which for nearly six decades has played an important role in the Midwestern communities it serves. That sense of community carries over to Krause's beautiful new corporate headquarters, which is now part of the ongoing urban rebirth of Des Moines's Western Gateway district. The polygonal-shaped building, adjacent to two parks, is positioned by its owner and design team as a piece of art surrounded by an urban forest. The six-story building takes up only a quarter of the entire site; the rest is public space that includes 128 newly planted trees and shrubs and interactive landscape furniture. Krause Gateway Center's striking design takes its cue from the traditional French dessert mille feuille ("a thousand sheets")-razor-thin layers of puff pastry interspersed with a buttery cream filling. The goal was to make the 100-foot-tall building's horizontal planes appear to be "flying" over the site. Krause Gateway Center sits precisely where two orientations of the city grid intersect: its upper floors orient to the northern city grid and align elegantly with lower floors that orient to the southern city grid.
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