Jackson Meadows, a project in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, by David Salmela. (Photo by Katherine Dombek)

By Juan Martinez & Lauren Evans

At 5:30 a.m. last Wednesday (Sept. 23), our studio traveled north in two vans. Seven hours (in the most comfortable seating/sleeping arrangements ever) later we arrived at our first stop. We saw a couple projects by Eero Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe at the Drake University campus in Des Moines, Iowa. Four hours after that, we arrived at our hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. More importantly, though, we had arrived at the Mall of America. We ate and participated in pure, childlike fun: roller coaster riding.

The roller coaster at Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota. (Photo by Maria Ferrero)

The next day, we left Bloomington, early in the morning to see a few projects by Marcel Breuer at the Saint John’s University campus. Most notably was the amazing tour we got to have by one of the monks who has lived on campus for the majority of his life. He showed us not only the history and procession of being in the Catholic Church, but he led us to the various underground spaces of the church, including the crypt.

Saint John’s Abby. (Photo by Katherine Dombek)

Saint John’s Abby. (Photo by James Vo)

After spending half of the day at St. John’s Abbey and exploring other parts of the beautiful campus, we got on the road again and headed towards the Crane Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, hoping to see a flock of cranes. After a long hike and much anticipation, we were unable see any cranes, but – much to our satisfaction – we saw a flock of bald eagles sitting in the middle of a cornfield. The next day we got even luckier.

We started our day by hiking Gooseberry Falls, right outside of Duluth, Minnesota. The water was flowing powerfully down until it emptied into the grandiose Lake Superior. It was a mystic and magnificent beauty to behold. After a rest on the shore, we set out to find some lunch and stopped at a hole-in-the-wall, log cabin diner, famous for their pies (and with good reason).

Gooseberry Falls, near Duluth, Minnesota. (Photo by Katherine Dombek)

Gooseberry Falls, near Duluth, Minnesota. (Photo by Katherine Dombek)

After scarfing down our lunch, we sped off to do some birdwatching at the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory. Using our binoculars, we saw hawks fighting for air space while bald eagles dominated the sky. Our classmate, Gigi, even got to release a bird back into nature that had been caught and banded for scientific studies and research. Shortly after, we continued our road trip to a tiny town called Marine on St. Croix.

We arrived at a project by David Salmela, called Jackson Meadows, an eerie yet incredibly compelling take on the American suburb. It is the ideal neighborhood, rethought, where every homeowner worked directly with the architect to come up with a suitable house for each individual family while keeping the same essence of the others surrounding it. Every house was made of the same materials, painted white and surrounded by white picket fences against a plush, prairie-like landscape. While the houses had different characteristics, each was noticeably similar.

Jackson Meadows, a project in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, by David Salmela. (Photo by Maria Ferrero)

We woke up the next day in Minneapolis, where we saw projects by Michael Graves, Jean Nouvel, Herzog & de Meuron and Philip Johnson. That night, we had possibly the best seafood dinner in the city of Minneapolis, and saw the play To Kill A Mockingbird, at Jean Nouvel’s Guthrie Theater.

The next day, we started our way back in the same two vans, in the same comfortable riding positions, while making some quick stops to see some work by Saarinen, Meier, I.M. Pei, Sullivan and Chipperfield in Iowa. After seven hours spent in the most comfortable seating/sleeping arrangements ever, we arrived in Fayetteville.

Saint John’s University library. (Photo by James Vo)

(Photo by Maria Ferrero)

(Photo by Katherine Dombek)

Corn field. . (Photo by Katherine Dombek)