Engineering Buildings

The Engineering Departments had been accommodated in the Physics and Engineering Building, but by 1943 it was clear that further space would be required and a proposal to this effect was put forward.

The Engineering Buildings - Engineering South (Mechanical) and North (Electrical and Civil) were both built soon after the Second World War with funds (like the Mathematics Building) provided through the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.  Built at a cost of approximately £150,000, planning commenced in 1946 although the buildings were not finished until 1951 due to supply and construction difficulties.

In contrast to the University buildings constructed in the decades prior to the war the Engineering Buildings were of reinforced concrete rather than the attractive red brick of earlier buildings.  The concrete brick facing (very similar to those used by the South Australian Housing Trust) was not added for some ten years after initial construction and at one stage was halted by the Premier, Sir Thomas Playford who ordered that the bricks be used for more urgent needs.

The third floor to the Engineering South Building was added in 1959.  Interestingly, the roof of the building was jacked-up while the necessary building work was carried out beneath it.  This is evident by the rendered dado of what was originally the topmost floor of the building but which now forms a dado between the first floor and the later added second floor addition.

Further additions were made in 1962 with the help of funds through the Universities Commission.

The Engineering Buildings house the Robin Laboratory, in memory of Professor R.C. Robin; and the Chapman Laboratory and Chapman Theatre, which commemorate Professor Sir Robert Chapman.

Taken from:

• University of Adelaide Archives Information Sheet No.20
• The University of Adelaide, 1874-1974: A Statement of the Case for Supporting the University's Centenary Appeal.  1972.