Exhibition: Historical OU Campus Tour

19. Crowther Building

Building 12 was officially named the Crowther Building in honour of the University's first Chancellor in a ceremony on Monday 21st July 2014. It replaced the original Crowther Building which was demolished in 2011.

Lord Crowther (1907-1972), a successful journalist and Editor of The Economist from 1938-1956, served as the first OU Chancellor from 1969 until his death three years later. He was installed at the ceremony to mark the University gaining a royal Charter on the 23rd July 1969, and it was on this occasion that he have his visionary speech describing the new university as being "open to people, places, methods and ideas' - the University's mission statement to this day.

The building, which houses Estates and Communications, was designed as an exemplar sustainable building and achieved a BREEAM rating of Outstanding in 2012.

Further information about Geoffrey Crowther can be found on the Crowther featured item page. This page also has the full audio recording and transcript of Crowther's speech from 1969.

The first image on this page shows Crowther at the Charter event in July 1969. The second shows the current Crowther Building. The OU Historical Images collection includes an image of the original Crowther Building, which was located roughly along the footpath leading from the Horlock Building down towards the Jennie Lee Building. The site is now covered by planting and footpaths.