Building Highlight - Arts and Economics Precinct Buildings
Construction of the Arts and Economics Precinct began in 1959 with the construction of the Haydon-Allen Building and the Haydon-Allen Lecture Theatre (known as The Tank) in 1960. Throughout the ensuing decades the precinct was further developed and eventually included the following buildings: Hanna Neumann Building, Copland Building and Lecture Theatre, John Dedman Building, HW Arndt Building, Manning Clark Centre, PAP Moran Building and the College of Business and Economics.
John Dedman Building
The John Dedman Building was constructed in 1968 to house the Departments of Geography, French, German, Russian and Linguistics. The largest of these was the Department of Geography, and it occupied the bottom two floors, with the language departments occupying the building’s top floor. The building was designed by W. Madden of Bunning & Madden and constructed by A.V. Jennings. The design was deliberately kept quite simple, with maximisation of space at the front of mind. At the time the university was under financial constraints, but there was a pressing need to provide accommodation for these departments. The building was originally known simply as Arts II Building but underwent a name change to honour John Dedman following his death in 1973. Dedman, as the Minister for Post-War Reconstruction, was instrumental in the legislation which led to the establishment of the ANU and was a member of the University Council until his death. In 1995 the building underwent refurbishments and then hosted the School of Mathematical Sciences.
LF Crisp Building
The LF Crisp Building was designed by architectural firm Bunning & Madden in 1972 as an extension of the John Dedman Building. With this building still known at the time as Arts Building II, the new building became known as Arts III Extension. The building was renamed the LF Crisp Building in honour of Lesley Finlay Crisp. Crisp was the first professor of political science at Canberra University College (CUC) and a member of the Interim Council of the ANU. He was a distinctive figure on the ANU Campus and had a significant impact on the development of the university, including the development of the student union and staff association. He was described as “unfailingly helpful to younger staff and students”, with students enjoying his theatrical lecture style (Bennett 2007). In 1996 the LF Crisp Building became home to the Faculty of Economics and Commerce.
Hanna Neumann Building
The Hanna Neumann Building was designed as an extension to the existing Haydon-Allen Building, for the purposes of housing the Department of Mathematics, and later the Faculty of Economics and Commerce. Like the Haydon-Allen Building, the design was completed by Sydney-based Architectural firm Bunning & Madden with construction by A.V. Jennings. In 1973 the building was named the Hanna Neumann Building in tribute to mathematician Hanna Neumann. Hanna commenced a professorial fellowship in the Institute of Advanced Studies at the ANU in 1963 and the following year was appointed to the chair of pure mathematics in the School of General Studies. She was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1969 (only the second female to be elected) and served as dean of students at the ANU from 1968-69. Hanna died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm on 14 November 1971, aged just 57. The original Hanna Neumann Building (Building 21) became known as the PAP Moran Building, with a new building constructed in 2018. The design for the new Hanna Neumann Building was a collaboration between architectural firms dwp (design world partnership) and Clarke Keller. The design revolved around the concept “connected spaces encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration”. The striking building, also known as “the coded building”, consists of two wings connected in a central entry atrium in which a sculptural timber stair links five levels of contemporary collaborative and teaching spaces. The design won the W. Hayward Morris Award for Interior Architecture, the Enrico Taglietti Award for Education Architecture and the Pamille Berg Award for Art in Architecture at the 2019 ACT Architecture Awards. The Hanna Neumann Building is a teaching and research hub that houses the ANU Mathematical Sciences Institute and Computer Science.
The Manning Clark Centre
The Manning Clark Centre was a lecture theatre complex designed by Woods Bagot Architects and constructed by Integrated Construction Management Services in 1993. It was opened that year by Prime Minister Paul Keating. The Centre was named after Emeritus Professor Charles Manning Hope Clark. In 1949 Clark was appointed Professor of History at Canberra University College (CUC). He was later appointed Professor of Australian History and held this role until he retired from teaching in 1974. Clark produced many highly regarded works, including the six volume History of Australia (1962-1987). He received honorary degrees from the universities of Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney. He was elected a Fellow of the Social Science Research Council of Australia (1952), Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1981) and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988). In 1975 Clark was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia and was named Australian of the Year in 1980. The Manning Clark Centre was demolished in 2017-18 to make way for the new Kambri Precinct.
HW Arndt Building
The HW Arndt Building was constructed in 1995 from a design by AC&A Architects. It was designed as an extension to the Copland Lecture Theatre, which had been completed 25 years earlier. The building was named in honour of Heinz Wolfgang Arndt. Arndt was born in Germany in 1915 and studied and taught in England before arriving in Australia in 1946, where he took up the position of Chairman of Economics at Canberra University College (CUC). From 1963-80 he was head of the ANU Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS). He also served as President of the Economics Society of Australia and New Zealand. For many years Arndt was regarded as Australia’s leading scholar of Asian economic development. The HW Arndt Building houses the ANU Research School of Economics, the foundational Research School in the ANU College of Business and Economics.
PAP Moran Building
The original PAP Moran Building (Building 26B) was constructed by Integrated Construction Management to the design of Wood Bagot Architects in 1999 and opened by ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Deane Terrell. With the construction of the new Hanna Neumann Building in 2018, the original Hanna Neumann Building (Building 21) was renamed the PAP Moran Building in honour of Patrick Alfred Pierce Moran. During the Second World War Moran worked on applied physics including vision, camouflage, army signals, quality control, road research, infra-red detection, metrology, UHF radio propagation, general radar, bomb-fragmentation, rockets, ASDICs and operational research. In 1951 Moran was appointed foundation professor of statistics in the ANU Research School of Social Sciences. He had a career at the ANU spanning three decades and even after his retirement in 1982, he stayed on as Emeritus Professor and worked on statistical methods in particular epidemiological methods and their application to psychiatry until his death in 1988.
College of Business and Economics
The College of Business and Economics (CBE) Building is a relatively recent addition to the ANU Campus, having been completed in 2009-10 from a design by Peter Jepson of AC&A Architects. The Building is the main hub of the College of Business and Economics, which offers courses in accounting, actuarial studies, economics, finance, management and statistics. In addition to teaching spaces and administrative offices, the building houses labs, a café and the CBE Connect Student Hub.
References
Acton Campus Site Inventory n.d., Australian National University, accessed
Bennett, S 2007, Crisp, Leslie Finlay (Fin) (1917-1984), National Centre of Biography, Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed
Coleman, P, Cornish, S & Drake, P 2007, Arndt's Story, ANU Press, accessed <http://doi.org/10.22459/AS.03.2007>
Fowler, K 2000, Neumann, Hanna (1914-1971), National Centre of Biography, Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed
Hall, P 1989, Obituary: Patrick Alfred Pierce Moran 1917-1988, Biometrics, vol. 45, no. 2, accessed
McKenna, M 2015, Clark, Charles Manning (1915-1991), National Centre of Biography, Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed
Spaull, A 1993, Dedman, John Johnstone (1896-1973), National Centre of Biography, Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed
