Early Design

As early as 1963, Dean William Lockhart and the faculty recognized the need for a new Law School building. Even after Fraser Hall’s expansion, an adjacent WWII-era ‘temporary’ building was required to accommodate Law School activities. Facing these challenges, and a projected student body of 800 by 1970, the responsible course of action was to build. A move to the edge of the newly developing West Bank was seen as the best, and most easily approved, path to that new building.

In 1967 and 1968, the Law School Building Committee, chaired by Professor Robert Stein and advised by University Architect Winston Close, authored The Law School in the Decades Ahead and Report of the Building Committee: Space and Equipment of the New Law School Building. These in-depth studies, together with the Building Committee, laid the foundations for the new building and guided the work of architect Leonard Parker, beginning in 1970-71, through the early design phases.


Thumbnail of 1971 Design Book1971 Design Book

Thumbnail of 1973 article 'New Law School Building ... A Year of Decision'1973 New Law School Building...A Year of Decisions





  • Thumbnail of 1968 Law School Building Committee
  • Thumbnail of 1971 Design Book p.0 Design Influences
  • Thumbnail of 1971 West Bank Development model
  • Thumbnail of site plan of 1971 Design
  • Thumbnail of 1971 Plaza Level Floorplan
  • Thumbnail of pencil rendering of 1971 Design Entrance
  • Thumbnail of Leonard Parker with his design for the Minneapolis Convention Center