Brock Hall

Location:

1874 East Mall

Date:

Original construction 1939-40
North wing (Brock Hall Annex) 1956-57
Student Services Centre 1991-93

Architect:

1939-40 Sharp & Thompson
1956-57 Thompson Berwick Pratt
1991-93 Poon Gardner Billington

Cost:

$9,735,000 total

Sources of funds:

1939-40: $80,000 (Donations from students, alumni, and the general public, money borrowed by Alma Mater Society, grant from UBC Board of Governors, Brock family)
1956-57: $335,000 (Loan supported by a continuation of the self-imposed annual $5 levy on all students, after the Memorial Gymnasium debt had been retired)
1991-93: $9,320,000 (UBC and B.C. government)

Name history:

Dr. R.W. Brock, Dean of Applied Science and his wife Mildred, who both died in a plane crash in 1935.

Use history:

1940-67 student union building.
1967- UBC administration, including Student Services - original Brock Hall re-opened as UBC Welcome Centre in 2005.

Architectural features:

Annex - 3-storey concrete structure, grey glazed brick exterior finish.
Mosaic "Symbols of Education" on exterior of the Annex by UBC Architecture professor Lionel Thomas, first student-commissioned work of art on campus, unveiled October 1959. Each symbol represents an academic discipline and their arrangement suggests the inter-relationship of different areas of study.

Notes:

Seriously damaged by fire in 1954. AMS immediately started a fund "Rebuild the Brock" and within six months the building was repaired at cost of $400,000 and re-opened.

Sources:

Thompson, Berwick, Pratt; Goodall.

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