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.
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