Effigy Mounds Chapel Proposal (2013)

     The Effigy Mounds National Monument is a national park in far northeastern Iowa overlooking the Mississippi River. When glaciers carved away much of the region's topography, the Effigy Mounds remained and were later claimed as sacred grounds for American Indians. Today, the mound builders monuments remain.
     Offered the chance to design a non denominational chapel I elected to use the region's natural sandstone deposits to make an array of columns under a timber roof and beyond a dry stacked stone wall. The wall divides the general public of the park from those in contemplation. Once within the visitors are in a forest of stone columns which divide up views to the site. On the far end of the chapel it is completely open, and offers views across the Mississippi over the bluff.