This 42,860-square-foot building, designed by Barber and McMurry, was completed in 1928 as the Physics and Geology Building. It cost $215,000. A unique feature of the building was a two-foot-square shaft, which ran from the top of the building to the basement in order to provide sunlight and ventilation for the laboratories. It was the first UT building to have an elevator.
Physics moved to the Alvin Nielsen Physics Building when it was completed in 1962, and this building was known as the G & G (Geography and Geology) Building. A $100,000 interior facelift was completed in 1963 as part of UT’s program to increase facilities for scientific study and research. The map library was expanded by 50 percent, and a museum on the second floor housed physical science exhibits and included a 65-year-old, full-scale-relief model of Tennessee.
With the removal of geography to the Burchfiel Building in 2000, the building was renamed the Geological Sciences Building; and with the change in name of the Geological Sciences Department to Earth and Planetary Sciences, the name of the building followed suit.