OPEN BOOK NOOK

Scope

2018

Project Location: Winterset, Iowa

Project Team: Zach Detterman, Matt Koepke, Heather Schulte, Brett Snyder, Lauren Stokes, Mia Tiric, Trevor Toy, Emma VanZante

Disciplines

Design Build

Construction

Premise

Located in Winterset, Iowa and commissioned by the Friends of the Winterset Public Library, the Open Book Nook is an attraction and art piece that offers covered reading spaces in the alley between Monument Park and the Library.

The structure was co-designed by interdisciplinary design students (2016) and graduate architecture students (2020), but built by our team of undergraduate architecture students under the guidance of Leslie Forehand.

Supported by curved steel beams to mimic an opening book, each nook reflects Winterset's history in the Civil War and Underground Railroad by engravement in the tigerwood, making it a creative teaching tool, as well as a shady place to relax and read a good book.