1855–1900 Dawson Lectures (1855) Thirty years before the construction of Engineering's two original edifices;
McGill had been offering lectures in
Applied Sciences. This series of lectures was started in 1855 by William Dawson, a renowned geologist and McGill's fifth principal which was offered within the Faculty of Arts until the formation of the Department of
Applied Sciences in 1871. Dawson accepted the offer, but he traveled to Britain first and while there delivered several papers at the annual meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Eventually, the lectures formed the core of a two-year curriculum leading to a Diploma in
Civil Engineering.
First Engineering Buildings (1893) For the first time in the history of
McGill, buildings are constructed specifically to house engineers. The imposing Macdonald Engineering Building and the more modest Workman Technical Shops were both designed by architect Sir Andrew Taylor and his partner, William Gordon. Featuring a symmetrical Italian
Renaissance facade and a Montreal limestone exterior, the five-storey Macdonald building is equipped to meet every conceivable need. Among the facilities housed on its five floors are an apparatus museum, a library, a forge, a foundry, and a dynamo and engine room.
1900–1999 Fire of the Macdonald Building and Rebuilding (1907–1909) On April 5, 1907, the Macdonald Engineering Building burns. Everything in it, except the contents of the ground floor laboratories, is destroyed. Fortunately, the fire doors that were built in the adjoining Workman Technical Shops (commonly referred to as the Workman Wing) do their job, keeping the building intact and sparing it from significant damage. Less than a week earlier the old Medical Building had burned down. Some of the stone salvaged from this fire was used to add a fourth floor to the Workman shops. The Faculty's sponsor, Sir William Macdonald, again stepped forward, this time volunteering to contribute to build a new structure on the foundation of its predecessor.
Percy Nobbs, Director of McGill's School of Architecture is asked to design and build the new structure. The University and Macdonald both stress to him the importance of function and fire resistance. The carved phoenix rising from the flames is one of the few ornaments on a building constructed specifically for fire-proof functionality. Although the phoenix is easy to overlook, the Macdonald Engineering Building is a mainstay on the east side of McGill's downtown campus.
Faculty of Engineering Launched (1931) The Faculty of
Applied Science becomes the Faculty of
Engineering in 1931. It offers two degrees – Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) and Master of Engineering (MEng). McGill also introduces a completely revised curriculum in Chemical Engineering, to be administered by the Department of Chemistry.
Dawson College (1945) Dawson College was opened in 1945 to accommodate the greatly increased enrollment due to the return of students from the armed services and was housed at the R.C.A.F base at
St-Jean, Quebec. All first year science and
engineering students were transferred there. The number of students enrolled, mainly veterans, reached a peak of 1687 in January 1947. The College was closed in 1950.
Dawson College was administered by a Vice-Principal, Dawson College and by various other McGill staff members who undertook duties such as that of Assistant Bursar and Secretary.
First Woman to Graduate From Engineering (1946) Mary Blair Jackson (later Mary Fowler) graduates from
Mechanical Engineering, McGill's first woman engineering (non-Architecture) graduate. She would go on to become a pilot officer at
RCAF training command headquarters in
Trenton, Ontario, where she conducted statistical work connected with the training of ground crews.
The J.W. McConnell Building Is Completed (1958) Named in honour of
J.W. McConnell, a Governor of the University from 1927 to 1958, the new four-storey McConnell Engineering Building is officially dedicated by Chancellor
Ray Edwin Powell on October 6, 1958. The new building doubles the Faculty's space and provides much needed facilities for graduate programs.
Center for Intelligent Machines (1985) With a grant from the Québec Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Science, four researchers – Martin Levin, Steve Zucker, Pierre Bélanger, and George Zames (BEng Engineering Physics 1954)– form McRCIM (the McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines), now known as the Centre for Intelligent Machines, to study intelligent systems. CIM seeks to advance the state of knowledge in such domains as
robotics,
automation,
artificial intelligence,
computer vision, systems and
control theory, and
speech recognition.
The M.H. Wong Building Reaches Completion (1997) The new M.H. Wong Building – the first new major academic construction on
McGill's downtown campus in almost 20 years – is erected around the Foster Radiation Laboratory (built in 1948). The building, which became the new home of the Departments of Chemical and Mining, Metals, and Materials Engineering cost close to $34 million, $12 million of which came from private donations. The largest of these was a gift of $8 million from the family and friends of the late Man Hung (Jimmy) Wong (BArch 1981). Another anonymous donor from Hong Kong contributed $1.9 million in honour of the late Chemical Engineering professor J.B. Philips.
2000–Present Philanthropist Lorne Trottier Makes Transformative Gift (2000) Quebec entrepreneur
Lorne Trottier announced a gift of $5 million to help build a new Information Technology undergraduate teaching facility at
McGill, estimated at a cost of $17 million. The government of Quebec announced that it will provide $7 million to complete the
Lorne M. Trottier Building, prompting Trottier to double his gift to $10 million. In 2003, the Lorne M. Trottier Building opened in September. The building houses six floors of advanced teaching laboratories, interactive learning rooms and meeting spaces and is equipped with all of the latest high-tech equipment.
School of Architecture Receives Landmark Gift (2017) Through a gift from
McGill alumnus Peter Guo-hua Fu, the School of
Architecture is renamed the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture. His gift will support the full range of architecture education at McGill, creating new learning and research opportunities that will position the school and its students for a vibrant future. One portion of the gift will be used to create the Peter Guo-hua Fu Fellowships. These will be awarded, on the basis of academic merit, to graduate students entering or enrolled in the School. Preference will be given to citizens of
China. ==Departments and Schools==