River Plaza Building

The River Plaza Building has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its unique design, art deco architecture and historic significance to Waterloo. The new design incorporates the fine architectural features of the existing building balancing and blending this heritage with major new elements of glass and metal achieving a bold new statement, which reflects the buildings new use and the exclusive character of this unique facility.

This building site may be one of the more historic locations in the city of Waterloo. A plaque in the entrance of River Plaza states, this is the spot where the first settlers of Waterloo crossed the Red Cedar River. The dam on the Cedar was built on this site.

Waterloo was known as a mill town. The Union Mill was built on this site and the original plat named the site the Union Mill plat.

The Waterloo YMCA was organized only three months after Waterloo was incorporated on September 28, 1868. The first YMCA was built on the site in 1898 for $12,950. Demolition of that building started in November 1930.

A new YMCA, the present building, was built on the same site at a cost of $365,000.00. It was located on the south bank of the Cedar and was designed by a noted Waterloo architect, Mortimer B. Cleveland. The building was elaborate in terms of its scale and design for a city of Waterloo’s size in 1931. Many leading citizens lived in the YMCA when they first started their careers. The call system, with the many buttons, that buzzed the rooms on the third and fourth floors is still in the building although not in use.

The Renovation

The development of this project has been directed to establishing a 82,475 square foot Class A professional office/athletic club facility for a very limited number of professional offices. There has been more than $4,000,000.00 spent in restoring the building to its former grandeur.

Orientation to the Cedar River

The building has been dramatically redesigned “opening” the northeast of “river side” of the structure and connecting this sweeping expanse of windows to the four-story interior sky-lit atrium. This design scheme allows most major suites a river view.