Best Web Design in Iowa City, IA (2026)

Web Design for Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City is a literary college town on the Iowa River, Iowa's first state capital, and home to the University of Iowa and its world-famous Iowa Writers' Workshop. In 2008 it became the first U.S. city, and third in the world, named a UNESCO City of Literature. Its identity blends bronze-lettered sidewalks honoring authors, black-and-gold Hawkeye football, and one of the country's best academic medical centers.

AppWT works with Iowa City, IA businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Iowa City

Also known as. Athens of Iowa. UNESCO City of Literature. The Writing City.

History. Created by a territorial legislative act on January 21, 1839, to serve as the seat of government. Served as Iowa's third territorial capital from 1841 to 1846 and its first state capital from 1846 until 1857, when the capital moved to Des Moines. The University of Iowa was established in 1847, and the old capitol building became its first permanent structure. In 1922 the university became the first in the U.S. to accept creative work as theses, leading to the founding of the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1936, the nation's first creative-writing graduate program.

Local economy. The economy is anchored by education and healthcare tied to the University of Iowa. Largest employers include University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (~15,500), the University of Iowa (~10,300), Iowa City Community School District (~2,000), the VA Medical Center (~2,000), and Procter & Gamble (~1,300). The Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of fewer than 60 NCI-designated cancer centers in the United States. The ACT college-testing organization is headquartered in the Iowa City area.

Culture and community. The Iowa Writers' Workshop and related programs have produced writers who have won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes; alumni and residents include Flannery O'Connor, John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, and Marilynne Robinson. Since 1967 the International Writing Program has hosted more than 1,600 writers from over 160 countries. Signature events include the Iowa City Jazz Festival, the Iowa Arts Festival, the free Friday Night Concert Series, and the October Iowa City Book Festival. Iowa Hawkeyes football is a cultural centerpiece; the Hamburg Inn No. 2 diner is known for 'pie shakes' and presidential-campaign stops, and Prairie Lights is a landmark independent bookstore.

What makes Iowa City distinct. The 'Hawkeye Wave': at the end of the first quarter of every home football game, fans and players turn and wave to young patients watching from the Stead Family Children's Hospital across the street, a tradition started in 2017. The Old Capitol's gold dome was destroyed by fire on November 20, 2001, when contractors using torches to remove paint accidentally ignited it; a re-gilded dome was raised in 2003. Kinnick Stadium honors Nile Kinnick, who won the Heisman in 1939 and later died in a WWII Navy training flight. The 8.5-foot bronze Black Angel statue (1912) has oxidized nearly black, spawning long-running local legends about its darkening.

Iowa City Landmarks and Local Life

• The Old Capitol Building - a National Historic Landmark with a gilded gold dome that anchors the University of Iowa's Pentacrest
• Kinnick Stadium - named for 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick, said to be the only major-college stadium named after a Heisman winner
• The downtown Literary Walk - a series of bronze sidewalk panels celebrating writers connected to Iowa
• The pedestrian mall (Ped Mall) downtown and the Black Angel monument in Oakland Cemetery.