Cedar Rock State Park (a 40-minute drive from Waterloo) and the Friends of Cedar Rock (a nonprofit that supports the Walter House) are looking for a volunteer teacher to possibly lead three two-or-three-hour summer camps (May—August 2026). The ideal would be a summer camp for elementary-aged children, middle school, and high school. We are looking for volunteers to help plan, design, and lead these summer camps for 2026.
Cedar Rock State park preserves the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Lowell Walter Residence. The Usonian-style house was constructed on a bank of the Wapsipinicon River near Quasqueton, Iowa, in 1950. Frank Lloyd Wright is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most famous architects of all time. He designed eight of the 26 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United States. The Walter House is on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa. It is a very distinct house in the Frank Lloyd Wright world because it is one of only 25 Wright dwellings with his signature block, which was Wright’s way to communicate a house of noteworthy dissection. See: https://friendsofcedarrock.org/
We would like these three summer camps to focus on architecture and nature (as Frank Lloyd Wright's style of architecture—called organic architecture—was to build homes that connected/integrated with nature). Dr. Laura Porter, Executive Director of the Iowa Architectural Foundation, is willing to share a curriculum they use for 5-day youth camps in Des Moines to make architecture alive, real, and exciting to youth. Their curriculum is for 8th and 9th graders.
If interested, please contact Katie Hund (manager of Cedar Rock State Park) at 319.934.3572 (office), 319.327.3730 (mobile), or kathryn.hund@dnr.iowa.gov or Dr. Rodney Dieser (President of the nonprofit Friends of Cedar Rock) at 319 273-7775 (work) or rodney.dieser@uni.edu
