designed by multi-award-winning architect Patel Taylor and attracted a mixed response; Prince Charles referred to it as 'like a dustbin' whilst the Civic Trust, a charity of which he is patron, awarded it a Civic Trust award (2008) for making 'an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the environment'. The building was named after Sir Ivor Crewe in April 2007 to mark his retirement from the position of vice chancellor, a position he chaired since 1995.
The Gateway Building at the Southend Campus opened in January 2007 providing facilities for Essex Business School, East 15 Acting School and the School of Health and Social Care plus a business incubation centre. The university also converted a former church into the Clifftown Studios to provide East 15 students with a theatre, studios and workshop spaces, and thus, the university has a theatre at each of its three campuses.
The Social Science Research Centre was completed in February 2007 housing the Institute for Social and Economic Research and the UK Data Archive. Through a unique collaboration with the University of East Anglia, Essex founded the University of Suffolk in 2007. A new building for the health and human sciences opened in 2008, now named the Kimmy Eldridge Building in honour of Kimmy Eldridge who joined the university in 1994 to establish the Nursing and Health Studies Unit, now part of the School of Health and Social Care. The Centre for Brain Science opened in 2009 providing a new home for the Department of Psychology.
=== 2010 to present ===
Essex Business School opened in 2015, the UK's first zero-carbon business school building, intended as a symbolic gesture to sustainable and ethical business practices. It houses a winter garden giving the building its own micro-climate and a rainwater pond recycling water to cool the building. The building includes an operating trading floor with Bloomberg terminals offering direct use of Bloomberg market data and information. The building won the RICS Design through Innovation Award …
