Iowa Road Trip Part 4 - Owatonna

[dreamshark]

The last stop of our great Iowa Road Trip was actually in Minnesota. We stopped in Owatonna for dinner and what turned out to be a lovely evening. I found the sushi restaurant (Mizuki Fusion) on Yelp, where the reviews tended towards "surprisingly good sushi for rural Minnesota." Let's just dispense with the obligatory big-city condescension and say that the sushi was every bit as good as city sushi. The fried wonton appetizer was the 2nd best fried tofu I've had (and it's really hard to beat Peninsula for that).

After dinner we strolled across the street to the Historic Central Park Bandstand for a free outdoor concert. While we listened, I wandered around taking pictures of the Historic Fountain (restored in 1977) and the Historic Baby Alligator Water Fountains (1904). Owatonna is proud of its history, and there are plaques everywhere.


Then, it being Golden Hour and all, I started in on the obviously old, handsome, and well-preserved downtown buildings (which probably had plaques too, but I didn't walk over to see). The most striking one turned out to be an architectural landmark even to people who are not from Owatonna. Can you identify the Louis Sullivan "jewel box"?

Comments

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I did not want to give away my guess in the comments because I was nearly certain that I must be right. One of those buildings does really scream "Louis Sullivan!" I Googled to verify.

I guessed correctly, FWIW.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Wow, you must really be an architectigeek! I just went, "Pretty building!" and snapped a picture. Even after extensive "research" (clicking around on the Internet) I'm not sure why that building screams "Louis Sullivan" and the one across the street from it does not. All three of these handsome buildings are on the National Historic Register, btw. And apparently Owatonna has more of these. It might be worth driving down there to take their local architecture walking tour.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I am only a medium level architecture geek in that I've learned to recognize several styles through formal education, but I've not sought out lots about modern architecture on my own.

I have a deep loathing for Frank Lloyd Wright, and a mild disdain for Frank Ghery - two of the most respected architects. I would never survive among the real architecture geeks.