Rudd Public Library earns Michael L. Schrock Merit Award
AIA Minnesota Minneapolis Chapter has awarded the Rudd Public Library one of two winners of the 2025 Michael L. Schrock Merit Award, an honor created in memory of the architect who helped develop the awards program.
The special honor is awarded to the winning project or projects that most embodies Schrock’s Seven Rules of Architecture:
- 1. Know where you are from
- 2. Know who you are
- 3. Know why you are
- 4. Respect your benefactors
- 5. Honor the environment
- 6. Architecture must serve those who occupy it
- 7. There is beauty in functional, economical, safe, environmentally responsible, owner-driven architecture
AIA Minneapolis announced the winners of the Michael L. Schrock Merit Awards in addition to eight recipients of the 2025 Merit Awards, an honor bestowed on projects designed by AIA Minneapolis architects that tell a story of excellence beyond design, emphasize public-interest design, and embrace the varied forces that shape a building. The Rudd Public Library won a 2025 Merit Award as well.
On December 15, 2021, a devastating EF-1 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.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, the library board was determined to push forward, rebuilding stronger and better.
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.
“Our community is six streets wide” says Linda Miller, a longtime Rudd resident and the library board secretary. “Anything bigger than an F1 could have wiped the whole town out. We are very fortunate. We are lucky that no one was hurt or killed. Everything else is replaceable and as a community we have done a pretty good job of that.”
“We are very fortunate. We are lucky that no one was hurt or killed. Everything else is replaceable, and as a community, we have done a pretty good job of that.”