The University Of Iowa School of Art commissions Steven Holl architects to enhance its art program

The 70,000 sq ft building houses an auditorium, classrooms, an art library, studios, an art gallery, faculty offices, meeting rooms and a café. A public route follows the contour edge of the pond and extends vertically up into the building’s central atrium by a suspended stair of red folded steel plates. Glass walls line the building’s interior passages, revealing works-in-progress within studio classrooms and giving views throughout and Natural finishes and exposed materials such as concrete floors and ceilings give material character to the new building The building was designed to partially straddle a pond and creates new campus spaces, pathways and connections to the landscape. The suspended elevated wing contains the library which extends out over the pond. The building is set to be officially opened on the 8th of September.