Decorah, Iowa, USA

Drawing multiple elements of the Norwegian culture, Snøhetta and BNIM have completed a new 8,000-square-foot building, known as The Commons, and a collection of outdoor spaces, establishing a dynamic new entry point and gathering space for a cultural campus containing a museum, folk art school, and other community-oriented facilities, commissioned by Vesterheim.

Named Vesterheim Commons, the project threads together Vesterheim’s Heritage Park with Water Street, the city’s main thoroughfare.

Marked on the street by a soaring wooden canopy, the new building’s public reception lobby mirrors the cozy and sheltered outdoor rooms of the surrounding park.

Flexible upper-level galleries, including state-of-the-art digital facilities and a new production studio, create spaces where visitors can explore a rich collection of artifacts and artworks.

The project allows Vesterheim to draw in local residents and visiting groups from around the country so that new stories can be told through multicultural experiences bridging time and place.

The lobby is bathed in light from above by a wood oculus while a flexible event space and new circulation areas create interior connections to the Westby-Torgerson Education Center and Vesterheim’s Folk Art School.

A second-floor gallery feeds the new digital workspaces and offices, including a new study room for the focused observation of Vesterheim’s astounding collections.

A unified campus is composed of historic structures, outdoor classrooms, and revitalized commercial buildings set within a wooded landscape.

In addition to offering a new public green, Vesterheim’s Heritage Park creates a dramatic setting for year-round public access to a variety of immigrant-built structures brought to Decorah from across the Upper Midwest region.

Built using locally sourced brick, wood structure, and textured concrete walls, The Commons links the museum collection and the Folk Art School to Norwegian craft traditions through honest and humble materials.

This tactile and time-honored sensibility extends to skillful forestry practices necessary to nurture Heritage Park into the future. ​ 

“As an American-Norwegian company, Snøhetta is grateful and excited to play a part in recontextualizing ​ the experiences, art, and crafts of Norwegian immigrants here in the United States since the 1820s,” explains Craig Dykers, Snøhetta’s Founding Partner.

“The Commons and Heritage Park will create new opportunities for considering and understanding the experience of all immigrants to the United States, and contribute to the vitality of Decorah and the driftless region.” 

With its mass timber wood frame fabricated in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and exterior walls built of brick from Adel, Iowa, The Commons extends a long tradition of using local materials to give shape to the life and culture of Decorah.

The project’s distinctive yet respectful outward appearance creates multiple opportunities for Vesterheim visitors to experience and appreciate Decorah’s downtown architecture and the region’s verdant landscapes.

Project: Vesterheim Commons
Architects: Snøhetta AS
Architects of Record: BNIM
Client: Vesterheim
Photographers: Michael Grimm