Building Highlight - HC Coombs Building

The HC Coombs Building was one of the first permanent buildings on the Acton Campus. The design was completed by Mockridge, Stahle and Mitchell and construction took place for much of the 1960s, with additional design work completed in the early 1970s by architects Anthony Cooper & Associates. 

The Coombs Building is one of the most well-known on the Acton Campus, with its distinctive hexagonal design. It was designed as the new home for the Research School of Pacific Studies and Research School of Social Sciences, which had been housed in the Old Hospital Buildings on the Acton Peninsula.  

During the design process, JW Davidson, Dean of the Pacific School, and Keith Hancock, Director of Social Sciences, led a committee to seek staff opinions on what the new building needed. Feedback received included the strong desire from one academic for the new building to “avoid the horror of the interminable passage” and give the scholar “some impression of the space, light and landscape” that drew them to Canberra (Brij Lal and Allison Ley 2014).  

Of the six designs that were shortlisted, two were seriously considered and both were based on a hexagonal design. The first was a design by the Grounds, Romberg and Boyd and the second was a design by Mockbridge, Stahl and Mitchell. Ultimately, the latter was selected as it best allowed for future expansion. This was demonstrated when the original design, which consisted of two hexagonal buildings, was expanded with the addition of a third hexagonal building to house a lecture theatre and laboratory.    

The building’s name was a tribute to Herbert Cole “Nugget” Coombs, a renowned economist and public servant and ANU Chancellor from 1968 to 1976. Coombs was also highly influential in the establishment of the University.  

References

Lal, B & Ley, A 2014, The Coombs: a house of memories, 2nd ed., ANU Press, Canberra, ACT. 

Australian National University n.d., Acton Campus site inventory,