Frank Dawson Adams from University -- McGill Archives

The Frank Dawson Adams Building, named after a professor of Geology who also served as Vice Principal from 1920 to 1924 and became the first chairman of Graduate Studies, was originally named the Physical Sciences Centre. It was finished in October, 1951 by the firm of Fleming and Smith who were later commissioned by McGill to build both the McConnell Engineering and the Otto Maass Chemistry Buildings. The space was originally intended for Mining, Metallurgical, and Chemical Engineering and Geology, allowing Physics and Chemistry to remain in the Macdonald Physics and Macdonald Chemistry Buildings, respectively. This structure, connected to the campus by a small bridge, provides a link between Macdonald Physics and Macdonald Chemistry (now the Macdonald-Stewart Library Building and the Macdonald-Harrington Building, respectively) and then stretches north along University Street. All four floors (the fourth was added in 1963) were erected around a steel frame and the materials chosen are durable and of good quality. F. D. Adams has large windows which allow much natural light at the west and east ends and provide a view of the opposite side of campus. There is a large lecture theatre on the second and third floors which can accomodate 350 science students, allowing the lectures to be given in just one section. The Department of Geology, having been moved from the fifth floor of Macdonald Chemistry, is located on the second through fourth floors with several Engineering faculties sharing the main and basement areas. As with many designs of this period, the F. D. Adams Building is very functional; its only ornament is the structure itself.