Construction on the Breuer-designed priory for the Benedictine Sisters of the Annunciation in Bismarck, North Dakota was completed in 1963. A few years later, the sisters approached Breuer to design buildings for the University of Mary, which was run by the order. The prioress of the convent served as the president of the University. Breuer and his associates Hamilton Smith and Tician Papachristou proposed a four building complex consisting of an L-shaped residence hall that could be augmented in the future by its mirror image to create a U-shaped courtyard, college hall, a science building with laboratories and a trapezoidal lecture hall. Despite different proportions the buildings were united aesthetically by the use of stone walls and modular precast concrete window panels. A covered concourse connected the buildings and featured the same muscular v-shaped supports used at the convent.