Not too far awayis a small brick chapel, like a tight drum, at Drake University, one of 16 structures designed by Eero Saarinen for the school. Local architect Cal Lewis took me inside on a sunny day, and he suggested that we sit down in high-backed chairs, allowing our eyes to adjust to the light from a single oculus that poured onto a ceremonial central altar like cool fire. Overhead wood framing extended the analogy of the primordial hearth. The effect was palpable, Druidic, and emotional, lingering internally, as a powerful play like Hamlet might alter your internal landscape. Across campus, the Saarinens had built dormitories that are testimony to self-knowledge and restraint.
Architects take note.
These background buildings, carefully and sparely detailed to differentiate height and scale, manage to enliven the landscape without overwhelming it. Rather than announce their own importance, the tall public rooms lie on a lower level, along a natural swale. They allow the land to speak. After the quick tour of Des Moines, Cal and I sped out toward Ames and Iowa State, where we spent an hour in a computer simulation center before an evening lecture. I flew through the oculus of the Pantheon while standing up, but that s another story.