COLUMBUS, Ind.—This small city in southern Indiana was christened “The Athens of the Prairie” by Lady Bird Johnson due to its outsize stable of modernist architecture landmarks.

The town library was designed by I.M. Pei. A bank and a local church were designed by Eero Saarinen. Its small newspaper office was designed by Mies van der Rohe protégé Myron Goldsmith. Even the local hockey rink was designed by an esteemed architect, Harry Weese.

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