Columbus, Indiana

J. Irwin Miller, who ran the Cummins engine company here, made an unusual offer through the Cummins Foundation: if the school board and other public bodies chose an architect from an approved list of the best in the world, the foundation would pay the design fee. Over decades that produced dozens of significant buildings in a town of fifty thousand - Eero Saarinen's North Christian Church with its single spire, Eliel Saarinen's First Christian Church of 1942, I. M. Pei's library with a Henry Moore bronze outside, Harry Weese, Kevin Roche, Richard Meier, Deborah Berke. The annual Exhibit Columbus programme now celebrates that legacy.

What's there

• Dozens of significant buildings - in a town of fifty thousand.
• Both Saarinens - Eliel's church of 1942 and Eero's of 1964.
• Pei's library and a Moore bronze - on the central plaza.
• A funding model that caused it - the foundation paid design fees.

When to go

April to October. A full day.

Practical notes

Many buildings are working churches, schools and offices with no interior access except on guided tours. Tours run on a schedule and book ahead. Sites are spread out. It is an ordinary Midwestern town otherwise.

Nearby

Indianapolis is north; Brown County State Park is west.

Key facts