The Breeze Block That Built More Than a Wall

There are some objects that become part of your life so gradually, you don’t realize they’re shaping you.

For me, it was this breeze block.

Not one like it—this one.

My parents found these blocks on an abandoned construction site in Lamoni, Iowa while they were in college. They weren’t salvaging materials for a house; they simply saw something beautiful that someone else had left behind. Cast in bright white concrete, they were probably made for an art installation rather than a building.

Instead of becoming construction waste, they became furniture.

My dad stacked them into bookshelves, and they followed our family from home to home. Every room I grew up in had these breeze blocks somewhere. As a child, I didn’t know they were part of mid-century architecture. I just knew they belonged.

Later, my father taught me what they were.

He explained how breeze blocks brought light, air, and pattern into architecture. He introduced me to Frank Lloyd Wright, told stories about Wright’s brilliance—and his eccentricities—and helped me understand that great architecture isn’t just about buildings. It’s about ideas.

Those conversations stayed with me.

After my father passed away, the breeze blocks found another home. His partner’s granddaughter, inspired by the same passion for architecture he had shared with her, left for the University of Kansas to study architecture. The blocks moved into her apartment, continuing a story that had begun decades earlier on an abandoned job site in Iowa.

I love that.

One generation discovers them.

Another learns from them.

A third carries them forward.

The original breeze block that inspired Laswell’s front door—a piece of my family’s story for more than 50 years, and a reminder that the best design often carries the deepest memories. When my fathers partner passed away, I found the blocks were still being used in the garden of their home.

Today, as we’re restoring Laswell, I kept coming back to this pattern. Look closely and you’ll see something unexpected: two interlocking “L”s wrapped around a central square.

Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.

The design became the inspiration for Laswell’s front doors—a subtle nod to the home’s name, but more importantly, a tribute to where my own love of architecture began.

Every time I walk through those doors, I’ll think about a curious college student rescuing a few forgotten concrete blocks.

About a father teaching his son to notice good design.

About architecture as something that connects generations.

Sometimes the most meaningful design inspiration isn’t found in a museum or a magazine.

Sometimes it’s been sitting on a bookshelf your entire life.

Inspired by a single breeze block. Built from a lifetime of memories. Welcome to Laswell.