Introduction

Today (Monday 24 July) the University Council is meeting to receive a feasibility study on the potential future of the Hunter Building. This study was commissioned last year by the Friends of Hunter. The comprehensive proposals call for the construction of two tower blocks, the effective rotation by 180° of the existing Hunter Building and the planting of a statue of imposing dimensions depicting our namesake Queen Victoria in a casual pose (see cover).

Traffic is to be re-routed in past Kirk, round the front of the old Hunter building and out where it presently comes in at the bottom of the Hunter lawn. Paved, grassed and landscaped areas abound. The facade of the old Hunter building is retained with a new interior. The new buildings have been designed with an eye to complementing the present structure, but are in concrete with an extensive window area (earthquake regulations come down heavy on brick buildings).

The study is a remarkable example of what can happen when someone sits down and actually makes a real attempt to plan the development of the campus in line with its already existent advantages. Not that everyone should get carried away. If the proposal is adopted, it will mean that while most of us languish away in Easter-field, New Kirk, Cotton, Von Zedlitz, etc., only music and law students, and the Vice Chancellor and the Staff Club will be reaping the benefits of the new complex. And the cost? At May 1978 rates: $9,470,000.