About 1.3 million bricks make up Sever Hall, H. H. Richardson's academic building in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Designed by H. H. Richardson and built from 1878 to 1880 with a gift from Anne Sever in honor of her deceased husband James Warren Sever, this is one of Richardson's mature masterpieces, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. It was conceived to house classrooms, lecture halls and rooms for professors, and it announces that purpose in brick rather than stone: about 1.3 million bricks were used in its construction.
The building is 176 feet 4 inches long, 74 feet 4 inches wide, with a height to the cornice of about 50 feet and a hipped roof that rises another 30 feet, three full stories plus a fourth set within the roof. The west facade greets you with two round bays set symmetrically about an entrance tucked into a deeply recessed semicircular archway; the east facade echoes the composition with a simpler rectangular entrance, while the north and south facades are more austere, punctuated with windows. Three full stories rise to the cornice at about 50 feet, and a fourth hides inside the hipped roof, another 30 feet above.