Fraser Building

Formerly Begbie Building (1980)

Law

 

This building is of structural steel and concrete construction, with extensive use of brick masonry and wood on both exterior and interior surfaces. Designed to serve the needs ofthe Faculty of Law, it has a two-storey section that contains faculty offices; a one-storey section that contains classrooms, seminar rooms, and a moot court; and a two-storey section that houses the Diana M. Priestly Law Library.

Names

Murray Fraser (1937–1997) was UVic’s founding law dean. He came to UVic in 1974 and opened the law school one year later. Fraser was appointed UVic's vice-president academic in 1983 and held the post until 1988. Murray's wife, Anne, was a nationally syndicated CBC Radio commentator and helped spearhead an effort to preserve Halifax's historic waterfront buildings. At UVic, she developed innovative continuing studies courses.

 

Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie (1819–1894), British Columbia’s most famous judge, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at St. Peter’s College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar in Lincoln’s Inn, London, in 1844. In 1858 he accepted an appointment to be the first judge in the newly established crown colony of British Columbia. He became Chief Justice of the Mainland Colony in 1869 and Chief Justice of the Province of British Columbia in 1870, a position he held until his death in 1894. He was knighted in 1875.

Diana M. Priestly, B.A., LL.B., M.L.L., was law librarian at the University of British Columbia and served at three major university law libraries in eastern Canada before becoming one of the first appointees to the UVic Faculty of Law in 1974. As professor and founding librarian, she established the criteria for the Law Library and developed the collection from the beginning. At the time of her retirement in 1987, the library held one of Canada’s major collections of legal materials.

Facts and Figures

Architect: Wagg & Hambleton
Structural: Brooker Engineering (Victoria) Ltd.
Mechanical: D. W. Thomson Consultants Ltd.
Electrical: Spratt & Associates
Acoustical: Barron & Associates
Contractor: Dura Construction Ltd.
Contract: $5,622,617 (June 14, 1979); $5,771,524
Gross area: 91,676 sq. ft.
Cost per square foot: $62.96
Official opening: November 15, 1980 (Special Convocation)

 

See UVic's maps and buildings description.

 

Photographs