Building Highlight - Haydon-Allen Building
The Haydon-Allen Building was the earliest building constructed for the Arts and Economics Precinct of the Canberra University College (CUC) School of General Studies and was one of the first four permanent buildings constructed on the Acton Campus.
The National Capital Development Commission selected a design by Sydney-based architectural firm Bunning & Madden, with the foundation stone laid on 12 October 1959 by Prime Minister Robert Menzies. The building was opened on 14 September 1960.
Unusually, the building was named after two people - the first fulltime members of the CUC academic staff, Professor Jeffrey Haydon, Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages, and Doctor Leslie Allen, Senior Lecturer in English and Latin, who began at CUC in 1931.
The main building consisted of three floors. The ground floor included five large lecture rooms and a staff common room. The first and second floors included smaller classrooms, seminar rooms, studies and spacious galleries to be used for leisure.
Arguably the most well-known section of the Haydon-Allen Building was an extension which became affectionately known as “The Tank”. This circular lecture theatre contrasted with the simple horizontality of the main building. However, internally the circular shape initially presented acoustical problems. These were remedied by the installation of free-standing pierced brick screens. The theatre accommodated 172 people with the furnishings designed by Derek Wrigley, from the ANU Design Unit. The construction of The Tank was completed by builders Kennedy and Bird and it was the first purpose-built lecture theatre on the campus.
The Haydon-Allen Building has over the years been home to the Faculty of Arts, History, Political Science and Sociology and the School of Social Sciences, including the Schools of History, International Relations, Political Science, Sociology, and the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.
References
Australian National University n.d., Acton Campus site inventory,
