Central Campus Shows Off Great Facilities, World-Class Programs
The beat goes on at Central Campus. It’s hard to believe that facilities with so much history already behind them are so well-equipped for the future, but all the activities going on during this week’s “Block Party” make it very clear that its best and most important years are yet to come.
Central Campus was originally built as an assembly factory for the Ford Motor Company in the 1920’s. Later it was retooled to manufacture aircraft engines during WWII. Then it became Des Moines Technical High School, home of the Engineers until 1986. Now it houses an impressive menagerie of state-of-the-art educational curricula ranging from automotive technology to the zookeepers of the animal science and marine biology/aquarium science programs. And it continues to evolve as progress on a comprehensive renovation of the premises moves into Phase 3.
Central Campus is joined at the hip, both literally and figuratively, to Central Academy, another historic building next door. Formerly the Wallace Homestead Building, it used to be the headquarters of Wallace’s Farmer, a renowned agricultural journal published by the most influential Iowa family of the 20th century. Now it’s an academic hothouse that lures and trains the brightest young minds in the area to meet the challenges of the 21st.
The Block Party festivities at 1800 and 1912 Grand Avenue got underway on Monday night with a student art show. Tuesday night was a community Open House event featuring lots of demonstrations. Robotics, blood pressure checks, poetry, exercise equipment in the new wellness center, ROTC drill teams, coral propagation, DNA testing, blue screen movie magic and much more were on display courtesy of various departments headquartered there. Wednesday morning was reserved for tours by prospective students and their families. While curious visitors explored, rehearsals were underway in the auditorium for Thursday night’s feature event, the annual fashion show put on by the Fashion Design program. Mood-setting music and hammers were both thumping away as the models practiced their struts and workers put finishing touches on the runway. On the 2nd floor students meandered through the new commons/cafeteria area while books were being moved into the even newer library.
Even as this thoroughly modernized educational plant races ahead it still reflects and honors its past. The Open House included the Tech High Hall of Pride and the basement still buzzes with various automotive endeavors.
If you think of DMPS as an assembly plant, you could say it continues to crank out a steady supply of Model A’s, just like Central Campus was originally built to do. Or maybe a farm makes a more apt metaphor, in which case the crop reports out of Central Academy these days are as glowing as any ever recorded by Wallace’s Farmer.
Either way there’s plenty of cause for a party.
