McCaskill building 1

McCaskill building. Designed by England Brothers. Built by F. E. Shaw Cost 12,000 funded by Education Department; the first government funding received by the CAC. Opened in 1929 as the Laboratories Building. Later it was named the McCaskill Building after Lance McCaskill. L. W. McCaskill was a student at CAC 1918-20 and went on to become a leader in the fields of conservation and rural education in New Zealand. He was a staff member for many years and was awarded the Bledisloe Medal in 1944. (Life and Work at Canterbury Agricultural College 1956, p130)

The laboratory functions were moved to the Hilgendorf and Burns Wings, built in the 1960s and 1970s respectively. By the early 1980s it was used for offices rather than laboratories and housed Centre for Resource Management and later the Centre for Maori Studies.

For the last few years of its existence the building lay empty, deemed an earthquake risk, while it was considered whether to renovate or replace it. The decision was made for replacement and the building was demolished in 2007-08, along with the swimming pool which lay to the north of the building on Farm Road. Both structures were replaced with the Landscape Architecture Building which was constructed in 2008-09 and officially opened by Hon. Gerry Brownlee (Minister for Economic Development & Minister of Energy and Resources) on 20 November 2009.