It burned to the ground, but we built it right back up again.

In the darkness of a March night in 1925, a blaze began in the Engineering Building’s tractor lab, and three hours later, nothing was left but the ceramics room. Among the first four buildings on campus and the original home of the Agricultural Engineering Department, the 1912 structure had undergone a rigorous fire inspection only a day earlier.

But using the original foundation, a replica building that took on a true sense of permanence was constructed in less than a year.

Made of stately red brick, the building’s exterior includes “scuppers,” the troughs that remove water from the roof, as well as “pilasters” or slightly projecting columns. Both are subtle and effective vestiges of the collegiate gothic style.

This is a building that looks back even as Engineering leaps forward.

The main south entrance is simple and elegant, with trimming in sandstone, thin vertical slots, and a “lovely” archway entrance, says Colin Tennent, featuring distinctive brick similar to that used in the original Thorvaldson building.

He also likes the original slate roof – “expensive, long-lasting, durable, and in my mind, beautiful.”

True, we built the Engineering building right back up after the fire – but we didn’t stop there. We built some more, and some more. Now, the structure is a hodge-podge of additions constructed over 80 years. Its hallway grid strays from the 90-degree north-south format, which can make things confusing for visitors.

But the east atrium and entranceway, part of the 2002 addition, connects the front and back of the building and helps to show it is not an endless maze of hallways. “At least you see there’s a way out. There’s natural light at both ends, which gives you some hope,” says Tennent.

The Engineering Library also has a special role to play in reconciling the building’s skewed angles. The library’s triangular floor plan allows for a more straightforward grid system in the hallways surrounding it, “gracefully” resolving the building’s non-conformity.

The 2002 addition, Engineering’s most recent, houses Chemical Engineering on the building’s east side. It looks to the adjacent original structure, using the same pilasters, scuppers, and parapets, as well as red brick that is a close match for the material used 75 years before. Sandstone trim is replicated with pre-cast concrete, and the window frames are coloured to resemble the old building beside.

However, some additions made in the latter half of the 20th century are not so remarkable. Tennent points to a clumsy junction between additions near the southwest entrance where one building material begins and another abruptly begins.

Other notable features include the revealed mechanical and electrical systems inside the building. Ceiling ducts and “raceways” that house electrical and data systems are on display and can be used as instructional aids in the College.

“(In) most of the buildings, we’d hide all this stuff,” says Colin Hartl. “Here, they’ve left it exposed.”

A number of different materials and styles come together where Engineering additions meet. Photos by Liam Richards

Colourful ‘raceways’ call attention to mechanical systems.