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Chapter 10: Buildings and Books

Status in 1946

By any standard, however, the new huts were barely adequate. They would still be there the following autumn and the law faculty looked forward to the challenge presented by taking in a new entry class each year. The continual expansion of its physical "container" was therefore a pressing need in the earliest days of the faculty. Dean Curtis has recalled that:

[T]he first job when term ended in 1946, was to get two large (120 feet) huts moved . . . and put in shape for law school use. . . .
The building combining two huts functioned well—a library in one wing, six or so offices in one corner, a classroom in the other wing, restrooms discretely out of sight, even a common room for the lively exchange of legal and student gossip. . . .
. . . the surroundings which, even if cramped in humble huts, were surprisingly attractive.

Although they were apparently "pretty crude stuff ", the huts served their immediate purpose and were remembered affectionately by the earliest generation of students. Soon to be complemented by a new, purpose-built law building, the original huts continued in use for nearly three decades and, as a result, are synonymous with legal education in the minds of many generations of British Columbia law graduates.

Madam Justice Southin recalls that the conglomeration of huts that constituted the law faculty in her day "consisted of one big ‘hut’ which was the library. All the books were in there and then there was another one that sort of had a ‘common room’ in it . . . and off it was a little ‘common room’ for the ladies". The faculty members each had "a little cubby hole" for an office and space was generally in short supply. Southin recalls that "maybe there were two rooms where you could get a place to work in but there never seemed to be an absence of the place to do your studies".

Even with the newly expanded quarters, however, the law faculty could not contain the growth in demand for legal education. The faculty had to resort to the expediency of trooping its students off across campus until such time as more permanent quarters could be developed. Madam Justice Southin recalls a daily trek across campus where "there were some big, great big halls that . . . must have been built right after the war, they held 150 students . . . and they were right across the campus". Somewhat inconvenient, perhaps, this arrangement at least kept the faculty functioning until its own permanent building could be put up.

Status in 1951, part 1

The need for a new building to house the law faculty was soon apparent. Although student needs could (barely) be met by the assembled army shacks, the conditions in which the growing law library was housed was a matter of some concern. The library was quickly developing into a valuable resource yet was housed in huts that, according to army estimates, had only a twenty-minute life expectancy in the event of fire. Dean Curtis fell into the habit of making inspections of the buildings late each night as a precaution. Persuading the cash-strapped university to invest in a new building for a new faculty was, however, a difficult matter. After a "period of advocacy" that laid heavy emphasis on the danger of losing a unique collection of 20,000 or more hard-to-replace books, the university gave its approval to an expenditure of $325,000 to erect a law building.

The new building was designed to be simple and workable. Its exterior lines were clean and modern. Inside:

[t]he Main Reading Room was the centre-piece. Its deep windows gave a view which must be unrivalled—the harbour entrance in the foreground, the mountains rising behind one after the other to the distant horizon. The north light—the "artist’s light"—was what we wanted for a reading room, and was balanced by high narrow windows around the other walls. The walls were lined with books—space, on a tight budget, was at a premium—and as well [they were] in batteries of chest-high shelves arranged between tables and chairs. The floor shelves served as furniture to "break up" the floor area, and yet were not so high to cut off light from the windows. For General Assemblies and the like the free-standing floor shelves could be moved and chairs put in their place. Altogether it was an economical, efficient and pleasant facility.
. . .
On each side of the Main Reading Room, were two lesser sized rooms, also north facing with deep windows. They served as lecture rooms in the mornings and late afternoons. For the rest of the time, being lined with books, they were reading rooms. A third room of similar size reached back to the southeast.

The head of a Cambridge college once commented to the law dean that he thought the new law building to be "an admirable design for a petrol station" until he entered the main reading room. Thereupon the visitor’s impression was entirely transformed. He judged it to be a "magnificent Hall, one the best I have ever seen". E. A. Lucas, who had been a great fan of the early law huts, paid the highest compliment he could think of to the new, purpose-built law school ("now largely butchered" by subsequent construction according to Curtis). It was, he said, "a splendid dream . . . come true. The new Law Building is a glorified beautified hut!" Others thought equally highly of the 1951 law faculty building although, unlike the unnamed Cambridge visitor or Mr. Lucas, they did not feel compelled to draw such disparaging comparisons. Diana Priestly recalls the "big central reading room" as "a beautiful room with huge windows looked out to the sea. We could see the steamers coming back and forth from Victoria and the mountains beyond that, a beautiful room". Madam Justice Southin described "the first real new Law School" as "a very nice building for us . . . it was very nice".

Chapter 10 continued

Copyright © 1995 The University of British Columbia Faculty of Law. All rights reserved.
Please address questions or comments to Professor W. Wesley Pue, pue@law.ubc.ca