Well, there are a few things I didn’t really get with the article, myself.
What’s so intriguing about having windows on stair landings? They’re not between floors when the landings are at half stories.
It’s a nice old building, but I would have expected something much more distinctive. It looks like any number of public high schools to me.
Well, the high schools that look like this are generally from 1900-1940 in down-market Collegiate Gothic style, in imitation of the great Ivy League schools. Knox College came from a less wealthy time, long before the big schools started pretending that they were in England. Considering that northern European architecture is all very similar, it is quite possible that the model of this school is really Swedish, since it’s by a Swedish immigrant.