 Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | North-West University, Main Building Hendrik Jacobus (Henri) LOUW: Design Architect |  | |||||
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| The main building, designed by the firm LOUW & LOUW, was inaugurated in 1931 and was the first and most important permanent academic building on the campus. In 1928 a government commission, under the leadership of the businessman JGP van der Horst, was appointed to investigate the state of universities in the South Africa. This commission recommended that the Potchefstroom University College (PUC) be closed down, for reasons, amongst others, of it having inadequate laboratories, lacking of a proper library and being housed in corrugated iron buildings. Another point of critique was that the PUC stood under the control of a religious group that comprises less than 2,6% of the ‘white’ population of the Union of South Africa. This prompted the rector of the PUC, Prof Ferdinand Postma, to immediately depart on a tour as ambassador for the PUC. He visited congregations of the Reformed Church where, as an ordained minister, he preached and so inspired these congregation to form ‘ladies committees’ to raise funds for the building of a permanent academic building for the PUC. On 17 October 1928 the PUC made a petition to the government for financial assistance in the amount of £60 000 [R120 000] for the building of a main building, laboratories, equipment, residence and the payment of debts. On 10 December the PUC received word that £30 000 [R60 000] would be made available for the years 1929 and 1930. Postma’s fund-raising efforts brought in an amount of £5 000 [R10 000] and with the endowment from the government the building of the Main Building could proceed. The project was put out to competition and the well-known architect Gerhard MOERDYK, who had designed the Heimat Student Residence some years earlier, also submitted a design. Henri LOUW, however, of the architects’ firm LOUW and LOUW of Bloemfontein, won the commission. Later, in 1985, LOUW was to tell the PUK-Skakel that he had designed the church building of the Gereformeerde Kerk of Bloemfontein. The minister of that congregation was a half-brother of Totius (the renowned Afrikaans author) and Louw thought that through that connection he had been invited to participate in the competition. The two wings of the building were designed to represent welcoming arms. The space for hallways were to be kept to a minimum, hence, they were placed on the ‘short’ side of the building. Louw said that he designed the building in the style of the Italian Renaissance, as can be seen in the design of the balconies and the seven arches (which symbolise the seven arms of the lampstand on the emblem of the PUC). In April 1929 the Council of the PUC approved Louw’s design. The Johannesburg firm BABBS and LABDON did the quantity surveying. In December 1929 the PUC accepted Oosthuizen and Sterrenberg’s tender of £17 350 [R 34 700] for the construction. This branch of the firm was based in Kenhardt in the Northern Cape. Building costs eventually amounted to £18 948 [R37 896]. On 4 August 1930, the building having neared completion, the foundation stone was unveiled by Dr DF Malan, then Minister of Education. The inauguration of the Main Building took place on 4 April 1931, eight months thereafter. Here another former cabinet minister officiated, Senator FS Malan, who had in the earlier history of the PUC played an important role in the establishment of the institution. [Redacted after a full account by Lennie Gouws (See the original Lennie Gouws writing about the history of Potchefstroom)]. References:
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