Written by Nathan Hopkins
St. Olaf's two most recent building projects, Tostrud Athletic Center and Buntrock Commons, are truly the gems of the campus. Buntrock is the epicenter of student activity. It contains student organization offices, everyone's post office boxes, the Caf, the Cage, the Pause, Viking Theater, the bookstore, the student radio station (KSTO), several conference rooms, and dining halls. Besides your dorm and maybe the library, Buntrock is the place where you will be spending most of your time. The building is truly beautiful inside and out, but it can get a little bit crowded between afternoon classes when everyone heads to lunch.
None of the buildings on campus are ridiculously old. St. Olaf has a tendency to demolish or totally revamp its more ancient facilities—except for Old Main, which was the first building erected on campus. Buntrock stands where Old Ytterboe, a former residence hall, once did. The speech-theater building was formerly a gymnasium, the Dittmann art building used to be the student center, and Steensland, the brick building next to Old Main, has served just about every purpose a building on a college campus possibly could.