Administration Building, Spanish Renaissance administrative building in Texas, United States

The Administration Building is a three-story structure with a basement, twin bell towers, double wings and a courtyard, on the Texas Tech campus in Lubbock. Its north facade, modeled on the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, resembles a mid-sixteenth-century Plateresque Spanish city hall, with ten twin-arched windows and ten portrait medallions above them.

The Administration Building was one of the original structures on the Texas Tech campus in Lubbock. Its north facade draws on the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Spain and recalls a mid-sixteenth-century Plateresque Spanish town hall. Much of the ornament was chosen by the college's first president, Dr. Paul Horn, including two quotes on the north facade.

The seals of Spain, France, Mexico, the Confederacy, the United States and Texas on the north facade mark the six nations that held sovereignty over Texas. Ten medallions above the twin-arched windows show figures from American and Texas history, among them Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, Crockett and Houston. First president Paul Horn chose much of this ornamentation, including two quotes on the facade.

The building has three floors and a basement, with the Chancellor's, President's and Board of Regents offices inside. The Double T Bench sits in the courtyard, and the Victory Bells hang in the east tower while the Baird Memorial Carillon fills the west tower. The carillon is played at 1:00 p.m. on July 4 and in Sunday evening concerts each summer.

The facade borrows specific design elements from the Archbishop's Palace in Spain but modifies them to suit the Texas climate and building practices. This adaptation reveals how European models were reinterpreted for American construction.