Knute E. Westerlind's design is fundamentally PWA Moderne, a style in vogue in the 1930s when it was originally designed.
 In keeping with Moderne style, Westerlind employed smooth brick walls, rounded corners, glass block windows, patterns of horizontal lines, and openings that appear "cut into the building".
 However, Westerlind, a protege of prominent Prairie School architect William L. Steele, brought a Beaux-Arts approach to determining its massing, symmetry, proportions, and details.
 In this divergence of style with approach, he was in keeping with his mentor, since Steele often brought a Beaux-Arts sensibility to his fundamentally Prairie School compositions.

The building is rich in details, including relief sculptures of stylized Native Americans on the northern exterior, and a number of terra cotta panels on the southern exterior, each depicting a person involved in a sporting or musical activity.
 There are inscriptions above the entrances: the one on the west reads "There is No Greater Conquest Than That of Self", while the one on the east reads "Art at Its Highest and Nature at Its Truest are One".
Knute E. Westerlind's design is fundamentally PWA Moderne, a style in vogue in the 1930s when it was originally designed.  In keeping with Moderne style, Westerlind employed smooth brick walls, rounded corners, glass block windows, patterns of horizontal lines, and openings that appear "cut into the building".  However, Westerlind, a protege of prominent Prairie School architect William L. Steele, brought a Beaux-Arts approach to determining its massing, symmetry, proportions, and details.  In this divergence of style with approach, he was in keeping with his mentor, since Steele often brought a Beaux-Arts sensibility to his fundamentally Prairie School compositions.
The building is rich in details, including relief sculptures of stylized Native Americans on the northern exterior, and a number of terra cotta panels on the southern exterior, each depicting a person involved in a sporting or musical activity.  There are inscriptions above the entrances: the one on the west reads "There is No Greater Conquest Than That of Self", while the one on the east reads "Art at Its Highest and Nature at Its Truest are One".
Sioux City Municipal Auditorium