The Hawkeye State is often thought of as a landscape of unyielding pragmatism: grids of cornfields, farms, and small towns stretching out toward the horizon. Yet, tucked within this quiet geography you’ll find architectural anomalies that feel almost like glitches in the matrix. From a historic jail designed to spin like a bingo cage to a community built entirely on cosmic alignment, some of the strangest buildings in Iowa challenge our perceptions of the state. These structures are more than roadside attractions—they’re monuments to eccentricity, obsession, and aesthetic risk, proving that if you know where to look, the Iowa landscape is anything but ordinary.
1. Visual Arts Building – Iowa City
Perched on a bluff overlooking the Iowa River, Steven Holl’s University of Iowa Visual Arts Building in Iowa City is a study in porosity. Unlike the heavy brick structures that dominate much of the campus, this 2016 masterpiece incorporates cutting-edge techniques into a breathable, light-filled monolith that replaced the beloved 1936 facility, which was lost to the 2008 flood. The architecture is defined by seven vertical “centers of light”—massive cutouts that slice through the floor plates, channeling natural light deep into the building’s core.
For a creative, the space feels less like a school and more like a collaborative tool. The shifted floor plates create balconies and visual connections between disciplines, allowing a painter to look down and see a sculptor at work. Its zinc skin and punched concrete frame provide a stark, industrial contrast to the surrounding greenery, making it a modern cathedral for the arts that demands you look up, around, and through.
2. Maharishi Vedic City – Fairfield
This isn’t a single building—rather, it’s a collection of them. Driving into Maharishi Vedic City feels like crossing a border into a distinct spiritual jurisdiction. Incorporated in 2001, this is the first all-Vastu municipality in North America, meaning every structure adheres strictly to ancient Vedic architectural laws. You’ll notice immediately that every single home and building faces due east to align with the rising sun—an orientation believed to promote order and happiness.
The aesthetic is unmistakably uniform: pastel colors, symmetry, and golden roof ornaments called kalash topping the buildings. Perhaps most striking is the silence; many homes are built around a central “silent core” or brahmasthan, which remains empty to anchor the structure’s cosmic energy. It’s a planned utopia where, by law, even the food sold must be organic. It’s a fascinating, serene, and slightly surreal detour that challenges Western concepts of urban planning and curb appeal.
3. Grotto of the Redemption – West Bend
On the quiet streets of West Bend, you’ll find an architectural fever dream that’s been called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and is, without a doubt, one of the strangest buildings in Iowa. The Grotto of the Redemption is not just a shrine; it’s the physical manifestation of a priest’s desperation. Father Paul Dobberstein began construction in 1912 to fulfill a vow made while fighting pneumonia, promising to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary if he survived…