Built between 1886 and 1889, the building formerly housed the School of Natural Philosophy and was designed in the Collegiate Gothic style by Reed, Henderson, and Smart, one of the most prominent architectural firms at that time to accommodate the new phase of science schools in the late nineteenth century.

[3]: 15  Prior to this date, the foundation Professor of Natural Philosophy, Henry Andrew, used the rooms in Quadrangle for teaching.

Under supervision of Professor T. H. Laby, the Commonwealth Adviser in Radium, 1938, the entire complex was raised into two-storeys and renovated by Percy Edgar Everett, chief architect of Public Works Department to accommodate Commonwealth X-ray and radium laboratory.

Reed, Henderson and Smart design relates back to the Old Arts building by Francis White.

[7] The Great Depression in 1891 put the construction to a temporary stop after Marvellous Melbourne,[8] due to lack of funds and a huge fraud by the University registrar, L. F.

[5][9] The design was also influenced by the rise in the colony's education reform in teaching methodology and new fields of study.

[3]: 17  Eventually, iron receiver tanks were installed to store the wastes beyond the Quadrangle before the proper sewer system was completed.

Its building elevation consists of buttressed stone walls, square headed windows and turreted gable ends.

On the north side of Old physics, architects Daryl Jackson and Evan Walker introduced an abstracted and cement-rendered version of a double-storey cloister, and a linkage to the Natural Philosophy extension.