John Medley Building, Brutalist academic building at University of Melbourne, Australia.
The John Medley Building is a Brutalist structure in Kernot Road at the University of Melbourne, designed by Sir Roy Grounds and built from 1969 to 1971. It has two six-storey towers, East and West, joined by an arched bridge with an inset first level of exposed aggregate concrete and thin arrow-slit windows. The towers are mainly light-brown brick, with pre-cast concrete at the pronounced corners.
Designed by Sir Roy Grounds and built from 1969 to 1971, the John Medley Building relieved overcrowding in the Old Arts Building (1919–1924) and housed larger faculty departments. It was named in 1971 after Sir John (Jack) Medley, Vice-Chancellor from 1938 to 1951. In the mid-2010s students campaigned to rename it over Medley's membership of the Eugenics Society of Victoria.
The building represents a major architectural shift at the University of Melbourne, combining elements of Bauhaus style with Italian neo-liberty movement influences.
The building stands on Kernot Road, flanking the axis from Grattan Street to the Old Quadrangle; Grattan Street has been closed to traffic since February 2018. The fifth-floor Common Room bridges the two towers and gives views over the city and the university. The towers are named East and West.
The building was named in 1971 after Sir John (Jack) Medley, Vice-Chancellor from 1938 to 1951. Medley belonged to the Eugenics Society of Victoria, and in the mid-2010s students at Melbourne and Monash campaigned to rename the building and Monash's John Medley Library; the Monash library became the Student Union Recreational Library (Surly).
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