Flora Dungan Humanities Building

Mid-century/brutalist buildings

The tallest building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus is also it’s most interesting.

Built by modernist architects Walter Zick & Harris Sharp in 1970, and named for popular State Assembly woman Flora Dungan, the Humanities Building at UNLV is a unique example of combining the International Style with brutalism and desert modernism; a clean facade, lots of concrete with little ornamentation, and bringing the outside in with oversized walls of glass. It’s a stunner.

The building holds auditoriums, classrooms, lecture halls and administrative offices, and is a must see for any discerning modernist. Visible from S. Maryland Pkwy, there are parking meters in the lot out front for visitors, so bring quarters.

UNLV’s very first building, Maude Frazier Hall, opened in 1957 and was also designed by Walter Zick. Although it was bulldozed in 2009 there are still over a dozen more original mid-mod buildings on campus which you can learn more about, here!

Bonus building – Check out the unique circular cut-outs on the facade of the late 1970s Promenade Center strip mall, across the street to the north at 4444 Maryland Pkwy.