Plans to construct this campus began in the late 1950s after the university's original premises in Valletta were deemed too small. Designs for the new campus were prepared by the British architectural practice Norman and Dawbarn in 1961, and the Maltese architectural firm Mortimer and de Giorgio was also involved in the project. The foundation stone of the campus was laid down on 22 September 1964, a day after Malta's independence, by Commonwealth Secretary Duncan Sandys and construction was completed by 1970. The design was inspired by American college campuses, and it contains separate buildings for each faculty, along with a library and a University House, surrounded by a ring road. One of the most significant buildings in the university campus is the former Department of Architecture Building (now known as the Ġużè Cassar Pullicino Building), a Brutalist building designed by the British architect Peter Richardson and built in 1969–70.