The design centers on a gable-roofed temple front with Ionic columns, set on a high podium. This design was, according to the architects at the time, modeled after the north porch of the Erechtheum in Athens. The two bands of large classroom windows on each side of the temple front are contained between flat sections of the wall that give the appearance of being pilasters without in fact being pilasters. The continuous repeats of these windows and pilasters, plus the continuous entablature and cornice and the uniform use of a light gray limestone for surfaces and details, strongly tie the whole composition together. The siting of the building within a spacious tree-shaded lawn enhances its readability as a temple one might come across within a late eighteenth-century Picturesque English garden.