Galbraith Building: Difference between revisions

* CIV102 TAs' office (GB 213D; office hours take place in GB217 however)

     It is almost forty years since any additional accommodation has been made available to Civil and Electrical Engineering, and Aeronautical Engineering has entered as a newcomer during that interval, as indicated during the conferring of the LL.D. degree on Dr. Parkin last evening. When one considers the advances that have taken place in those disciplines, quite apart from the growth in numbers of students that has taken place and is projected, I think it can be fairly concluded that the University has not acted precipitately in making available these splendid new quarters. It might also be remembered that the old engineering building, now obsolete for engineering purposes, has been abandoned in the process, so that there is only a net gain and not a gross gain in space. Many of our graduates gaze with nostalgic- regret at the abandonment of the beloved "little red schoolhouse", but I say to them in all good humour that they would not wish for long to carry on their own engineering operations within it.

     Tribute should be paid to the architects, Messrs. Page & Steele, to the contractors, The Foundation Company, and to the Superintendent, Mr. Hastie, and his staff for having so much of the building ready for occupancy at the opening of Term last September, despite a five-month steel strike in the U.S., and, more importantly, in having produced such a thoroughly functional and at the same time eye-pleasing building.

     As an arresting overstatement it has been said that much early and fundamental research was accomplished with little more than some sealing wax and a bit of string. Those days are gone. Professor Tracy's digital computer, which arrived just yesterday, represents quite a bit of sealing wax, Professor Morrison's million-pound testing machine which has not yet arrived but for which a hole in the ground waits in the Strength of Materials Laboratory, represents some miles of string, and Professor Patterson's shock-tubes represent goodness knows what. But they all indicate the need for modern equipment in a modern setting in order that this University may continue to give top-ranking instruction to undergraduate and graduate engineering students. The staff are fully appreciative of the splendid building and equipment made available, and will strive to their utmost to use these facilities for the purpose for which they have been provided.

The Galbraith Building, much like many buildings at the University constructed in the mid-twentieth century, is said to be designed in the spare [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Style_(architecture) International Style]<p class="mw_paragraph"> with its clean geometric lines and exposed concrete structural elements. It is a kind of "square donut" built around a courtyard (known to most students as the "GB Quad"). The main architectural features consist of regular concrete columns and beams forming bays filled by dark and light-brown brick. On the north side, the columns are clad with limestone.<ref>L.W. Richards, ''The Campus Guide: University of Toronto'' (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009).</ref>