LeRoy Buffington

LeRoy Sunderland Buffington (1847–1931) was an American architect from Minnesota who specialized in hotels, public and commercial buildings, churches, and residences.

He later moved to Saint Paul, becoming a partner of Abraham Radcliffe, and worked on the remodeling of the original Minnesota State Capitol.

After the first capitol burned down, Buffington designed a replacement that served as the State House until 1904.

In 1881 he claimed to have invented the method of building skyscrapers using load-bearing iron frames.

Even though many subsequent builders used this method of construction, Buffington was mostly unsuccessful in collecting royalties from his patent (one exception was for the Rand Tower in Minneapolis).