The Fair is Part of the Rhythm of Growing Up Here

Ryan Wanta

Architectural Designer (Wanta & Son, Inc.) and Campaign Donor

The Rosholt Fair isn't just a place to me. It's a rhythm.

Every year, it signaled something. The end of summer. The beginning of a new school year. You hadn't seen your friends for three months, and then all of a sudden, there they were.

And, somehow, you both pretended those three months had transformed you into a completely better version of yourself. Wearing your brand new shirt. The one you got for school. Ready to proudly show it off. 

I grew up in Rosholt. My parents volunteered at the Lions cheese curd stand, and I’d be back there with them, helping cut potatoes with that old wall-mounted french fry cutter — the one where you’d slam the handle down and perfect square fries would shoot out the other side. I thought that was just about the greatest thing.

And watching the interactions with the customers, being behind the stand - it always felt like a promise of community. Everyone came through that line eventually.

I left Rosholt for a long time. College in London and Paris, then a decade in New York City, followed by time living in Los Angeles. I saw a lot of the world and a lot of great places. 

What that taught me was what truly great places feel like. 

But coming back taught me something else: we're the ones responsible for creating those great places.

When the opportunity came to design this building, the weight of it hit me right away. This wasn't just a project. I knew these people. I knew this ground. I'd grown up watching each generation leave its mark on the fairgrounds. The old schoolhouse, the old lumber mill, the buildings that have stood there for decades. I didn't want to imitate that, but I wanted to honor it, and then leave this generation's stamp on it. Keep it classic. Keep it rooted. And leave a little bit of me in it too.

What I'm most excited about isn't any single detail. It's the feeling. The way the light is going to dance through that space. The way it's going to sound. The way someone's going to walk in for the first time and feel like it's always been there - because in a way, it has. It just needed to be built.

I live by one rule: leave the place a little better than you found it. This building is my version of that.