Sir Edmund Head Hall
Building Name: Head Hall
Other Names: Sir Edmund Head Hall, Engineering Building, Civil and Electrical Engineering Building, New Engineering Building
Civic Address: 15 Dineen Dr.
Sod Turning:
Cornerstone Laying: 13 October 1966 (Sir Edmund Head Hall; by Reg Tweedale, Dr. A. Foster Baird, and John Dickie)
Opened for Use:
Official Opening: 15 February 1968 by Lt. Governor Wallace S. Bird
Architect: Larson and Larson
Named for: Sir Edmund Head, first civilian Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick (1848 - 1854); Governor-in-chief of Canada (1854 - 1861). Head "promoted the beginning of lectures in civil engineering by urging the College Council to employ an engineer by the name of McMahon Cregan ... in 1854" and "... sponsored a series of popular lectures in agricultural chemistry for which he compensated the lecturer, James Robb, out of his own pocket." This lead to the first formal engineering instruction to be offered in British North America.
Renovations/changes/additions:. A $3,000,000 extension, Sir Edmund Head Hall, was attached to the Engineering building in 1966. M. Patrick Gillin Hall was added to the Windsor Street side of Head Hall in 1989. The Computer Science Information Technology building was built and connected to Head Hall in 2000. Space for a common room and restaurant was created in Head Hall culminating in the "Head Rest", which opened January 2003.
Notes: Head Hall is in actuality an extension built between 1967-1968 which connects to the North side of the Engineering Building and now connects the entirety of the engineering and computer science complex, including the Electrical Engineering building, the Engineering Building, M. Patrick Gillin Hall, the Computer Science Information Technology Centre, and Sir Edmund Head Hall itself. The Head Hall extension was dedicated to Sir Edmund Head on 12 May 1964. Dineen Auditorium was dedicated to Dr. James Owen Dineen 5 December 1977. The W. Dana Wasson Computing Centre was dedicated to Dr. Dana Wasson 3 June 2003.
Named Spaces: Brian C. Lesser Computer Lab (B17), named in honour of Brian C. Lesser, and accomplished programmer and valued member of the computing services department staff for 25 years. He was the chief architect of UNB Libraries' online catalogue; he was responsible for most of UNB's email systems.
Baird-Turner Reading Room (C8), The reading room within the Engineering Library is named for two former professors and deans of engineering, Albert Foster Baird and Earle Oliver Turner. Baird taught electrical and mechanical engineering as well as physics and served as deal of applied science at UNB from 1916-1951 and acting president in 1947-1948. Turner joined the UNB civil engineering faculty in 1919 and served as dean of engineering from 1945-1959.
Dineen Auditorium (C13) and Dineen Conference Room (C level), James Owen Dineen was born in Hampton, New Brunswick and joined the electrical engineering department at UNB in 1942, was head of the department from 1951-1957, dean of engineering from 1957-1969, and president of UNB from 1969-1972.
ADI Studio for Interactive Technology (C25), A donation to UNB's Venture Campaign by Fredericton-based engineering, architectural and project management firm ADI Group Inc. was announced in 1995 upon the 50th anniversary of the company. The intent was to ensure engineering students woudl have access to state-of-the-art distance education and multimedia opportunities through use of the studio.
Wasson Computing Centre (D level), UNB's original computing centre was established in 1964 within the Department of Electrical Engineering with W. Dana Wasson as head of the school of computer science when it was established in 1972 and became dean of the Faculty of Computer Science in 1990 when the first such faculty in Canada was instituted.
David E. Wells Multimedia Room (E11), Professor David E. Wells taught from 1980-1998 in the geodesy and geomatics engineering department at UNB. Wells initiated and oversaw the conversion of a storage room to an urgently needed multimedia classroom, and in addition, applied for the funding from UNB that covered the renovations and furnishings. He was surprised with the naming of the room in his honour in 1999. The Lam Wing Shiu Room (E40), The computer lab within the department of mechanical engineering was supported by Harold W.M. Tam in honour of his mother and in support of the Venture Campaign in 1995. The Harold Tam Wing Ming Room (E41A), In 2006, Molly Tam, widow of Harold Tam, agreed to the creation of the Room beside the Lam Wing Shiu Room for use as the departmental boardroom and seminar room.
Association of New Brunswick Land Surveyors Room (E52), The ANBLS is the self-regulating professional association responsible for governing the practice of land surveying in New Brunswick. In 2007, the Association gave the department of geodesy and geomatics engineering to furnish the room.
Source(s):
- Leroux, John. Building A University: The Architecture of UNB. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2010, p. 36, 94, 119.
- UA Case 123, Section 3, Box 1; Head Hall.
- Bailey, Alfred G. The University of New Brunswick Memorial Volume ... : Fredericton: University of New Brunswick, 1950, p. 29.
© UNB Archives & Special Collections, 2014