Snøhetta and Vesterheim have completed a new building and landscape for the storied Vesterheim campus in Decorah, Iowa, housing the largest collection of Norwegian- American cultural artifacts in the world. A new 8,000 square-foot building, known as The Commons, and a collection of outdoor spaces, establish a dynamic new entry point and gathering space for a cultural campus containing a museum, folk art school, and other community-oriented facilities.

Aside from anchoring the site, the new Vesterheim Commons project threads together Vesterheim’s Heritage Park with Water Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. Most importantly, the new design provides a contemporary forum for the cultural center and community to look forward to their future.

“We are pleased to open Vesterheim Commons and welcome everyone into this new building, which now serves as the entrance to the museum campus! We are grateful to the design team, beginning with Snøhetta whose holistic design approach is demonstrated throughout the Commons and the architect of record BNIM who helped bring the project to fruition,” said Chris Johnson, Vesterheim President/CEO.

Marked on the street by a soaring wooden canopy, the new building’s public reception lobby and event space mirrors the cozy and sheltered outdoor rooms of the surrounding park. Flexible upper-level galleries, including state-of-the-art facilities and a new digital production studio, create spaces where visitors can explore a rich collection of artifacts and artworks. 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 Vesterheim’s Folk Art School in the adjacent Westby- Torgerson Education Center.

A second-floor gallery connects to a terrace overlooking the park, supporting year-round events indoor and out. At the 3rd floor, new digital workspaces and offices support Vesterheim’s online efforts, including a new study room for the focused observation of Vesterheim’s astounding collections. Taken together, the project allows Vesterheim to draw in local residents and visiting groups from around the country and the world, so that new stories can be told through multicultural experiences bridging time and place.

An evolving woodland park
Snøhetta’s master plan for Vesterheim, completed in 2019, set in motion a unified campus 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.

“Vesterheim Commons is a stunning structure with thoughtful and beautiful details throughout, but the vision of this project has always been about the people who will use it. Snøhetta’s long-range plan for Vesterheim has guided this work, and now before us is a facility that links the past and the future, connects the museum collection to Folk Art School students, and enriches the Vesterheim visitor experience for those coming to Decorah or participating digitally through a new video and photography production studio,” added Ruth Schultz, Vesterheim Board Chair.

Heritage Park’s urban woodland, nspired by the surprisingly similar Driftless region of Northeastern Iowa and the wooded landscapes of Norway, extends throughout the outdoor spaces, bringing together two unexpectedly rugged landscapes on the site. Here, plantings frame woodland clearings to provide obvious thresholds and edges defining Vesterheim’s grounds. In turn, The Commons’ outdoor classrooms and interpretive spaces are framed by diverse regional plant species intended to adapt and evolve alongside the institution and its programs.

“We began working with Vesterheim in 2018 to envision a campus master plan that reunites and enhances the museum and educational facilities through a memorable campus landscape,” explains Michelle Delk, Snøhetta Partner. “By adding new outdoor gathering areas that extend Heritage Park to Water Street, Vesterheim Commons creates new interior and exterior public spaces where people can come together to enjoy the museum’s vibrant collections, learn traditional crafts, and exchange experiences and ideas.”

Shaped by traditional craft
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 timehonored 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,” said Craig Dykers, Snøhetta 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.

Architectural forms inspired by Norwegian culture
The design of the Commons draws on elements of Norwegian culture. The welcoming canopy provides a protected and highly visible point of entry that is inspired by well-known boat designs, including the Colin Archer boat from Risør and the Restauration craft that first landed in the US in 1825. The timber frames with concrete footings harken back to the stone foundations of the Norwegian ‘stabbur’ traditional storehouses. The textured concrete was inspired by the work of Erling Viksja, the architect of the Norwegian national government building, known as the Y-block. Inside, the oculus resembles Saami tents, known as ‘Lavvu’.