The University of Minnesota has one of the few college campuses in the country that sits above a dramatic river gorge. Situated on the East Bank bluffs of the Mississippi River, Fraser Hall was designed as a new teaching center for undergraduate chemistry by local architecture firm VJAA. Reflecting years of faculty programming, the project is arguably the finest chemistry instruction building in the country.
Working with executive architect BWBR, VJAA incorporated the original Fraser Hall law school building, erected in 1929, into a new wing. The redbrick original now houses two lecture halls on the first floor and two teaching labs above. It looks east to the campus core and Northrop Mall, planned with City Beautiful grandeur by Minnesota-born architect Cass Gilbert. But VJAA’s new 121,718-square-foot building faces west with views across the Mississippi to downtown Minneapolis. After a century of campus growth and new buildings on the river, Fraser Hall completes a cohesive building wall along the bluff. Clad in copper, it is a distinctly 21st-century building that respects the materials and scale of its neighbors.
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Connecting all levels, the South Stair Tower features a 5-story integrated glass artwork by Dyani White Hawk, a Minnesota-based Lakota artist whose solo show at the Walker Art Center coincided with Fraser Hall’s opening in late 2025. VJAA participated in the artist selection process, and students and staff contributed ideas for color and form. Yoos told me that White Hawk’s glass art “is such an important part of the building’s experience that it inspired our selection of interior colors and finishes.”
