Pillsbury Hall

Possibly the most fanciful building on the University of Minnesota’s campus, Pillsbury Hall was designed by LeRoy Buffington and Harvey Ellis in the Richardson Romanesque style. Massed Minnesota sandstone, in various colors, give it the air of a playhouse, rather than a fortress. When I was a student there in the late 60s and early 70s it was a solid black, covered by decades of coal soot from the then nearby University heating plant; it was scrubbed clean in the 80s. It remains a delight in its use of decorative arts in architecture:







Buffington designed many other Minnesota landmarks, including the spectacular Old Minneapolis Library.