From the Beloit College Archives web site:
"Pearsons Hall represents the work of a master firm of architects. In 1980, that architectural significance was recognized with the placement of the building on the National Register of Historic Places. Pearsons Hall also has had great importance in the life of Beloit College. From 1893 until 1967 it was the college's science center. At the time it was built, Pearsons Hall in one dramatic step transformed the character of the college from a classical academy into a modern institution of higher learning. The restoration of Pearsons Hall and its dedication as the Jeffris-Wood Campus Center in 1985 will have a comparable impact on the life of the institution.
Pearsons Hall of Science is one of only three Burnham and Root structures still standing in the sate of Wisconsin. Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912), a nationally recognized Chicago architect, was known for his civic planning for office buildings and for many other commissions. He was an organizer of remarkable executive ability, the Chief of Construction of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the planner of Chicago's dramatic lakefront. Earlier, with his partner John Wellborn Root (1850-1891), the firm of Burnham and Root (1873-1891) created such landmark Chicago office buildings as the Rookery and the Monadnock and Reliance Buildings.
Pearsons Hall of Science, designed in 1891-1892, is a free adaption of the Romanesque Revival style, as practiced by Henry Hobson Richardson and others. The original plans, signed by Burnham, are now in the possession of Beloit College. The design also presumably owed much to Root. According to one account, "Plans were in the hand of Chief Architect Root at the time of his death." The cornerstone of Pearsons Hall of Science was laid on May 12, 1892, and the building was opened and dedicated on January 13, 1893.