OPN’s first AIA Minneapolis Award
AIA Minnesota, Minneapolis Chapter, has named the Rudd Public Library as one of eight recipients of the 2025 Merit Awards, an honor given to projects designed by AIA Minneapolis architects that tell a story of excellence beyond design, emphasizing public-interest design and embracing the varied forces that shape a building.
The AIA Minneapolis Merit Awards program takes a unique approach to awards jury composition, and is judged each year by a business owner, a real estate professional, a community advocate, an academic leader, and an architect.
On Dec.15, 2021, a deadly tornado hit the small north-central Iowa town of Rudd (population 348), causing widespread damage. The library was decimated physically and its collection flung far and wide.
The library was rebuilt on a new site next to the community’s recreation center. The design of the new library takes cues from the surrounding residential neighborhood. Using simple massing and materials, the use of daylighting and open spaces expand the sense of space in the 1,798-square-foot building. Highly functional, multi-purpose spaces and flexible furnishings further serve to make the most of a small footprint.
Following the storm, the outpouring of support from around the state was heartwarming, former Library Director Shelly Sharp recalls.
“The very next day we were just flooded with help. People brought their own heavy equipment to move debris and dump trailers.”
— Shelly Sharp, former Rudd Library Director
What the library ended up with is bigger, though not much, than the original library. But, more importantly, it is better, they say. Built in 1960, the original library was dark and lacked meeting spaces or a designated children’s area, but it was still a hub for activity.
“We wanted it welcoming, comfortable,” says Linda Miller, a longtime Rudd resident and the library board secretary. “Our old library was small, and it was dark.”
Natural light pours into the new building, which was relocated on a new site next to the town’s recreation center and takes cues from the surrounding residential context. Highly functional, multi-purpose spaces and flexible furnishings make the most of its 1,798-square-foot footprint. Where the old library lacked meeting rooms, storage, and office space for the director, the new library has all of these areas and more, including multiple nooks for reading. There’s now room for a community closet, a growing collection of 4,000 books, and puzzles, games, DVDs, and newspapers.
