Sydney Architecture Images- Sydney University

RC Mills Building

architect

 Cobden Parkes (NSWGA)

location

 Fisher Road

date

 1949-50

style

 Georgian style square headed windows that exemplify the typical Wilkinson Inter-War Mediterranean (one of the last examples of this on campus- modern, but fits in very well with its surroundings).

construction

 stuccoed brick

type

 lecture rooms, offices
 
 
One of a number of buildings financed by the Commonwealth government after WWII to assist with the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme for returned service personnel. The first permanent building constructed for the Faculty of Economics, designed to fit in with adjacent buildings.

Initially established as an evening course in commerce in 1907, a Chair of Economics and Commerce was created in 1912 and Robert Irvine appointed as the first Professor of Economics in Australia. A degree course began the following year but the subject continued as an evening course until after WWII. Plans were drawn up in 1946 for a building to house economics and architecture but were too ambitious. In 1949 a simpler building designed by the Government Architect was erected, one of a number of additions funded by the Commonwealth government to assist the University to accommodate the large influx of returned service personnel under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. The building provided accommodation for economics and also for the Commonwealth Office of Education (administering the new Commonwealth Scholarship scheme), each with its own entrance. Two small additional wings at right angles to the original rectangular building were designed by Peter Priestley & Associates in 1984 (south end) and 1988 (north end). In 1965 the building was in use for education. In 1979-1980 it was renovated for Social Work and Fine Arts.

A restricted two storey building, of a similar scale to the adjacent Ford Building. Its main feature is the two separate entrances, each with a reinforced concrete stair, a restricted door surround. The roof is tiled, the rafter ends are expose (as with the earlier Wilkinson Building). The planting adjacent to the Hockey Field appears to have been retained when the building was constructed.
   

 

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