UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

NAMING OF BUILDINGS COMMITTEE

Call for proposals for the naming of buildings and

for comment on several suggested names

The Naming of Buildings Committee (NOBC), a Council Committee chaired by Judge Ian Farlam, is responsible for identifying appropriate names for buildings, open spaces, lecture halls and rooms, and makes recommendations for these to Council. The NOBC is calling for proposals from the UCT community for names for the following buildings:

  • Cambria House - the house at the top of Stanley Road which houses the HR Department’s staff training and development unit.
  • The Campus Educare Building (situated above the Ring Road, this houses UCT’s educare facility, and is being expanded).
  • “ExAir”–the building on the corner of Main Road and Woolsack Drive so named as it was a complex maintained by the SAAir Force and Royal Air Force Associations for ex-servicemen and their families who had served in the SAAF or RAF. UCT bought this from the SAAF Association some years ago and in 2014 it is to become a third tier student residence.
  • Geological Science Extension Building.
  • “Humanities Building” – this is the interim name for the buiding at the end of University Avenue, first occupied in the 1960s,by the then Faculty of Education, later (prior to them moving to the Middle Campus) by law, and now housing several Humanities Faculty departments, including the School of Education.
  • “Maintenance Place” the collection of buildings that formerly housed UCT’s maintenace department, above the Ring Road, and now occupied by several EBE research units.
  • Chemical Engineering Building.
  • “New Engineering Building”, the new building nearing completion on the South West corner of the upper campus.
  • “Palm Court” – Station Road Mowbray, a block of flats bought by UCT in 2012 which is being converted for use as a student’s residence in 2014.
  • “Super Snape” sometimes referred to a the Teaching & Learning Building as it will house teaching and learning facilities as well as departmental space for two EBE departments being built on the site of the now largely demolished Snape Building.
  • The Cottage - located on Lower Campus – which houses sections of UCT’s Transformation Services division.
  • The envisaged new Lecture Theatre complex (the University plans to build a new large lecture theatre on the site of the Cottage (10 University Avenue) at the south end of University Avenue; this will be a 400 seat LT with ancillary facilities.
  • Any other as-yet-unnamed building, road, room/lecture theatre/lab or space.

The Deans and the current/future academic department occupants of these buildings (where relevant), the PASS Departments that use these buildings and the Residences Committee and Forum will each be invited to submit proposals.

The committee hasreceived the following proposalsfor name changes and invites comments on the following buildings/rooms:

  • “Eric Walker Room” (Historical Studies): the Historical Studies Department and the Dean of Humanities have proposed that the name be changed to The “Vincent Kolbe Room”. Eric Walker was at one time professor of history at UCT before taing up a chair in England. Vincent Kolbe was a librarian and social historian known for his ‘history from below’ approach and was involved in associations fighting the inequities in provision for and at South African libraries during Apartheid.
  • “John Day Zoology Building”, to be changed to the “John Day Building”; this houses sections of the Department of Biologial Sciences (the department that has been formed following the merger of Zoology and Botany).
  • “Jack Simons Lecture Theatre” the NOBC has had two proposals: that Jack Simons (lecturer in African Studies until he was banned from teaching in 1965) be honoured by naming the new Lecture Theatre after him, or naming the lecture theatre in the Arts Block where he taught after him.
  • John Martin Room: a proposal that the existing John Martin Room (in Menzies) be no longer so named and that the EBE conference room in the NEB be named the John Martin Room.
  • ‘Tony Fairall Teaching Observatory”: a proposal by the Department of Astronomy to name the small observatory on top of theR W James building afer the late Professor Tony Fairall, a long time member of the Department of Astronomy.

The Naming of Buildings Committee will use several criteria when assessing proposals: these are listed below. The NOBC will assess all proposals together with a directed call for proposals to the (future) occupants of the building. After assessment, the NOBC will publish a shortlist, or where possible a recommended name, for comment by the UCT community in a second phase.

Names can be:

  • Names of people:in one or more of the following subcategories:
  • Chancellors – e.g. Smuts Hall, Graca Machel Residence
  • Role Models – e.g. Leo Marquard Hall, Cissie Gool Plaza
  • Significance for transformation – e.g. Steve Biko
  • Distinguished service to UCT – e.g. Leslie Building, RW James Building
  • Testators (bequests) – e.g. Kramer Building, Baxter Theatre
  • Former (deceased) Vice-Chancellors – e.g. Beattie Building, JP Duminy Court, TB Davie Court,
  • Names describing the (dominant) use or users of the building for example MCB Building, Computer Science Building etc,
  • Names that describe a concept and/or transformation – e.g. Kopano, Hlanganani, All Africa House.
  • With the exception of the Chancellor, and the possible exception of a major donor/benefactor, proposals for names of living people will not be considered.

Proposals should be motivated and fit the above criteria. Proposals and comment on the names that have been suggested should be sent to:

The Naming of Buildings Committee

For Attention: Jennifer Rogerson

Room 142, Bremner Building, Lover’s Walk, Rondebosch

E-mail:

The closing date for proposals is at noon on 30 September 2013

A register of building names is available on the UCT website at

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