Brigham Young University Campus Buildings

44 Locations | Curated by Intermountain Histories Research and Editorial Assistants

Considered the largest privately-owned university in the United States, Brigham Young University offers a unique experience and a rich history.

Founded in 1875 as an academy for students of all ages, it has grown into a well-regarded university that offers degrees in hundreds of fields.

Brigham Young University, called BYU or "The Y" for short, is owned and run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes nicknamed “Mormons”).

Located in Provo, Utah, it is nestled in the mountains and provides a small-town charm to a large school.

BYU started off as a small academy in a small building near the center of Provo and has expanded to cover almost 600 acres, ranging from the center of the town to the mountainside with the emblematic white Y painted on the side.

This tour describes the many buildings that have existed as part of BYU’s campus over its more than a century of existence.

Named for philanthropic couple R. Eugene Allen and Inez Knight Allen, Allen Hall was established to accommodate growing numbers of students from beyond Utah Valley matriculating at Brigham Young University. BYU demolished the eighty-year-old building in 2018.
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In 1938, after Brigham Young University’s new Allen Hall dormitory for men successfully addressed student housing needs, BYU administrators resolved to build a companion hall for women. BYU rehired Allen Hall’s architect, Joseph Nelson, to design the second building. Nelson innovated upon the…
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Since the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons have emphasized the importance of education. An 1832-33 revelation given by Joseph Smith stated that church members were to learn not just religious doctrines, but "Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass;…
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While BYU is perhaps best known for its academic achievements and sports programs, since the mid 1940’s the university has owned and operated a successful dairy farm and creamery.
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Built in 1954, the David O. McKay Building houses Brigham Young University’s School of Education, which includes Educational Leadership, Elementary and Secondary Education, and Psychology and Instructional Sciences.
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With the increase in enrollment at BYU, the campus needed even more housing to complement the new Heritage Halls and Helaman Halls. Soon, plans were made for the Deseret Towers complex, which would increase the number of rooms available and allow students to live close to campus. However, due to seismic instability, these seven-story buildings were torn down and incorporated in the new Heritage…
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The Eyring Science Center was completed in 1950 and named for physicist Carl F. Eyring. It now holds a planetarium, observatory, and restaurant and offers several community outreach programs for school groups and families.
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Often confused for a utility building, the Faculty Office Building, or FOB, was a small building on the side of BYU campus. Seated next to one of the much-hated long flights of stairs, the FOB is exactly what it claims to be: mostly faculty offices. One of the more recent buildings, it’s history ranges from BYU football, to the President’s offices, to most of the colleges on campus.
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One of the most surprising buildings on BYU campus is the small, Tudor style cottage on the south-west end of campus. Currently housing BYU Graduate Studies, this building originally functioned as a home, housing many BYU Presidents and their families.
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One of the oldest buildings on campus, this building reflects much of the change and growth that the university has experienced over the last century. Originally a one story building to be used as a mechanic shop, it now houses the School of Communication, and is named after one of the most important Presidents of BYU.
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As the Grant library became too small, BYU administrators decided to build a new building to house the new library. Finished in 1961, it was named the J. Reuben Clark Library, though soon renamed the Harold B. Lee Library to avoid confusion with the newly created law school. It receives over 10,000 patrons daily and houses millions of units of materials.
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"Behold the greatest university campus in all the world — in embryo. Truly the campus is the setting of what will undoubtedly be the greatest university in the world, a place to train for our leaders." —Franklin S. Harris
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This massive building is known to BYU students as the building where the most prayers are said on campus. This is because it is now known as the Testing Center, where students take tests from most of their cases. However, it was originally a library, later repurposed as a museum, and only recently became the dreaded testing center.
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Built in response to the need for more affordable student housing, Helaman Halls has served as home to thousands of BYU students. Originally intended to be male, it now houses men and women. Named after a group of valiant young warriors, Helaman Halls stands as a reminder of BYU’s mission.
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Intended to be a live-in lab for class credit, the Heritage Halls apartments became incredibly popular among women, who first lived in the rooms. Named after influential women in LDS history, these buildings have housed many men and women and helped to teach students, both men and women, important skills for home living.
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Named after the philanthropic Knights’ youngest daughter, Iona House had a colorful half-century life as a dormitory, missionary training home, therapy clinic, and Spanish laboratory.
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Just east of the Harris Fine Arts Center lies the J. Reuben Clark Building, home to BYU’s Law School. The building was completed in 1975 and the school has since become an internationally recognized institution, ranked 39th in the U.S. for Best Law Schools.
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This unusually shaped building commemorates one of the most important patrons in BYU’s long history. Before being owned and operated by the LDS church, the young school depended on the generosity of donors and tuition to keep its doors open. Having come into much wealth through great luck in the mining industry, Jesse Knight donated large amounts of money to the school for salaries, equipment,…
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“The founding of the University did not begin with Karl G. Maeser nor with Brigham Young, but with the founder of the Church, Joseph Smith. Without his revelation, there would be no Brigham Young University; and it was the most fitting that a building be named in his honor.” – Franklin S. Harris, BYU President
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Completed in 1911, this building is one of the most memorable and well-known buildings on BYU campus. Its marble exterior, giant columns, and dark wood highlights inside project an elegance that is lacking in newer buildings around campus. It has been used for many varied purposes, ranging from business classes, to a library, to administrative offices, even army housing and other classrooms. It…
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Eventually named for two sisters-in-law, over the course of its life the Knight Mangum Building hosted a New Deal program, women students of BYU, missionaries-in-training, Latter-day Saint historians, and campus faculty. BYU demolished the building in 2008.
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Built as a warehouse and rented out for concerts and parties, the Lewis Building was ultimately Brigham Young Academy’s first long-term schoolhouse, from 1876 until its destruction in a fire in 1884.
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The beautiful landscape of Marigold Mall was named in remembrance of Marigold N. Saunders. After visiting campus as a guest of Adelaide Hardy, Saunders became a patron of BYU students when she bequeathed her fortune to funding scholarships at BYU and other colleges in the West.
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“Dr. Wilkinson said the new center will be more than a sports pavilion and music hall. It is being designed to accommodate devotionals, student assemblies, forums, lyceums, convocations, religious assemblies, public gatherings, and other activities.” -Office of the News Bureau, Brigham Young University, September 17, 1968
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One of only two current buildings on BYU campus bearing women’s names, May Hall was named after Jean Elizabeth Fossum May, a Latter-day Saint missionary and later beloved head resident of BYU’s Stover Hall. As a residence hall, May became a house of learning, play, and sisterhood.
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The Bean Life Science Museum is home to the university’s collection of over two million life science specimens used by researchers and students alike. It accomplishes its mission to “inspire wonder and reverence for our living planet” through educational programs and exhibits available to families and students of all ages.
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Ground was broken for the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in 1991, and the museum was opened in October 1993. The museum cost $15 million and was financed entirely by private donations. It was designed by LA architect James Langenheim and former directors of lighting and design at the…
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Business courses have been offered at Brigham Young University since its infancy. BYU’s business college, called by many different names in its long history, was previously housed in Maeser Building and the Jesse Knight Building. As the number of business students at BYU increased, in 1980,…
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Following the First Presidency’s 1957 affirmation that they wanted Brigham Young University to be “the greatest educational institute in the world,” an ambitious “master plan” detailing BYU expansion was revealed. This plan called for the construction of many new facilities, including a new building for university administration.
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In an effort to further encourage physical activities, the university decided to build the Stadium House. While it has since been replaced, the Stadium House was a campus landmark for students in the mid-twentieth century.
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Although today it is notorious for its windowless walls and congested design, the MARB was once part of a commodious two-building complex for BYU’s life sciences. Its namesake is Thomas L. Martin, dean of BYU’s College of Applied Sciences in the early twentieth century.
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While BYU is known for its manicured lawns, lush landscapes, and diverse architecture, few are familiar with the complex underground network of tunnels, rooms, and passageways that lie mere feet beneath it all.
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Named for a pioneering home economics professor at BYU, the Warnick House provided modest cooperative housing for BYU women when housing was short in Provo.
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In the early 1900s, BYU sporting events and dances were held in the Training Building and BYU High School. In 1912, President George H. Brimhall acknowledged that a new building was needed to accommodate the growth of the school. He set aside the corner of University Avenue and Fifth North for a…
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