Iowans raised $105,000 privately for their building, designed by Clinton P. Shockley of Waterloo. The Official Guide describes it as long and low, with executive offices at each end facing the avenue and a deep portico of great columns between them. Todd says the columns were paired Etruscan. It had a lounge, a theater seating about 300, a library of Iowa authors, a kitchen and dining room. It stood conveniently close to the livestock show ring, and more than 40,000 Iowans visited.
On Iowa Day, June 25, 1915, an Iowa ash was planted on the front lawn. The Legislature's 1915 money could be spent only on exhibits, so the building itself was a gift of private subscription. Todd called it "a monument to American pride and an aroused public spirit."