Security Bank, presentation rendering, 1891

Harvey Ellis was a talented architect and designer who worked in Minneapolis in the 1880s and early 1890s for a number of architects, including LeRoy Buffington. One of his most celebrated designs for Buffington's office was for the Richardsonian Romanesque-style Pillsbury Hall (1887) built on the University of Minnesota campus. Many of Ellis's designs were so adventurous for their time they were never realized. This is perhaps the best example of the avant-garde nature of Ellis' architectural designs. The simplified design with its geometric forms resembles especially the influential progressive design movements in Austria, particularly the Secessionists (a group active beginning in 1897) and the Wiener Werkstätte (active from 1903), though Ellis' design anticipates their work by six and twelve years, respectively.