Winter 2013 - University of Queensland

Remember whenLaying theFoundaTIOnsThe Forgan Smith Building and the GreatCourt, constructed during the 1930s and 1940s,are UQ icons and the heart of the University’sSt Lucia campus.The Forgan Smith Building is a UQicon and one of the most impressivepieces of architecture in anyAustralian university today.Designed by architects Hennessy,Hennessy & Co, with initial cost estimates of£1 million, the building’s construction beganin 1937 as part of the Great Court complexat the new St Lucia campus.The plan included the Main Building(now the Forgan Smith Building) toaccommodate the faculties of Arts,Commerce and Law and the University’sadministration offices. The 299-metre-longbuilding was designed with a six-storey,22.7-metre-high central tower to housea carillon of bells, splitting the westernLaw wing and eastern Arts wing, with thebuilding flanked on each end by the Libraryand a Great Hall (the latter of which wasnever built).At its rear was a double arc of buildingsto accommodate Chemistry, Geology,Physics, Biology, Architecture, VeterinaryScience, Anatomy, Physiology, Engineeringand the Student Union. The D-shapedGreat Court was positioned on top of asmall hill, the high point in the bend ofthe river, to give the best views and to beabove flood level.Construction continued until 1942, atwhich time the Main Building, the Libraryand the Chemistry Building were almostcomplete. During the Second World War,the complex was taken over for GeneralBlamey’s Advanced Land Headquarters andwas central to the Allied fight against theJapanese in the Pacific.Restoration for University use tookplace between 1944 and 1948, when thefirst students began to use the buildings,and the move from the old inner-cityGeorge Street campus was completedin the early 1950s. The Main Buildingwas renamed after William ForganSmith in 1967 to commemorate the ex-Premier of Queensland’s vision to beginconstruction of the St Lucia campus,and his Chancellorship of the University(1942–1953).With its exaggerated entrances, theForgan Smith Building is a striking exampleof a large and well-executed inter-warstripped classical style, with a nod to 1930sart deco. The Great Court buildings wereconstructed with granite from Greymare,near Warwick, and Samford; sandstonefrom Helidon; and marble from Bajool, southof Rockhampton. The mix of violet, lavender,cream and brown sandstone has created amottled but beautiful unified core for the StLucia campus.The Forgan Smith and other GreatCourt buildings are a potent statement ofthe importance of tertiary education. Theywere a huge 1930s–1970s investment inthe future of the State and its citizens, in amanner never before attempted. With theircompletion, Queensland came of age aftera century and a half of European settlement.The Great Court is now the heart of ourworld-class, global university.UQ Contact WINTer 2013 43