LBC Petal – Beauty

Biophilic design is a method used to enhance human-nature relationships through elements such as lighting, natural materials, and live plants. To begin incorporating biophilia into our building, Neumann Monson Architects led us through an all-day biophilic exploration. This exploration is intended to generate atypical ideas that bring biophilic design elements into our building. To do so, we brought in a historian by the name of Dan Clark, to help us understand the history of our building site. Dan Clark talked us through the lifespan of the building site’s previous library, the Indigenous history of Muscatine, the impact of the city’s pearl button and logging industries, and more. Some design elements that stemmed from this exploration are the three datestones on the front of our building, a stream on the pavers outside to reference the creek that used to flow through that part of the land, our Tree of Accountability, the pearl button backsplash, and white oak veneers.

One of our main goals during this process was to bring nature into our building to create a connection between our building occupants and the outdoors. To do so, we wanted to embody nature throughout our building design. For instance, we have over 300 total living plants within the building. We have lettuce walls, plant walls, a courtyard, four live trees, and other plants located both inside and outside of our building. We also incorporated many natural materials and surfaces within the building and artwork from the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts that ties to our work. Another design element that Neumann Monson added to our building is called prospect and refuge. This allows our staff to be able to view the first floor from their office (prospect) while also maintaining privacy from those below (refuge).

An aspect of the Beauty Petal is to hold an open house for the public every year. For our grand opening in 2023, we hosted a Sustainability Fair where different organizations set up booths to teach about green practices going on around Muscatine while also holding a self-guided tour of our building. In 2024, we are hosting a community paint day where artist, Drew Etienne, will outline a mural, and on June 28th, we will have an open house where the community of Muscatine will be able to help paint the mural. In addition to our annual open house, we have regular scheduled tours on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 10 AM, or you can also schedule a private tour.

Learn more from Neumann Monson Architects about the LBC Beauty Petal.