It was designed as an academic building with classrooms, lecture halls, rooms for professors, etc., in a style now known as Richardsonian Romanesque though in red brick rather than stone.

The main facade (west side) features two round bays set symmetrically about an entrance within a deeply recessed semi-circular archway.

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in Sever Hall among architectural historians,[citation needed] due to Robert Venturi's comment that it is his "favorite building in America.

"[3] He told Boston Globe critic Robert Campbell: "I have come to understand the validity of architecture as generic shelter rather than abstract-expressive sculpture, and as flexible loft for accommodating evolving functions.

The fourth floor of Sever, unnoticed by many of its students as the central stairwell does not lead to it, contains offices for Harvard's Visual and Environmental Studies department.