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Des Moines Public Library, South Branch

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1977, 1981, Charles Herbert and Associates. 1111 Porter Ave.
  • Des Moines Public Library, South Branch (David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim)

The South Branch Library reads as a public building only because of its location within a public park. The library is like something built with a child's Erector set, placed within stepped brick walls under a thin shed-roofed plane. The exterior is pleasant in a modest way; the interior, on the other hand, is almost Baroque in the way metal supports are used for its ceiling. With the natural light streaming in from above, one feels that one has entered a playful Modernist forest out of science fiction.

Writing Credits

Author: 
David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim

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