The Tannock Hall of Education is the second purpose built building on the University of Notre Dame Australia's Fremantle campus. The West End of Fremantle is an important heritage precinct and the new building is on the site of the Pier Hotel demolished in the 1970’s. The new building is designed to be sympathetic to the existing scale and materials of Fremantle's largely Victorian and Edwardian West End buildings, as well as clearly contemporary. The use of limestone walls and vertical windows behind the glass solar screen are designed to resonate sympathetically with the adjacent heritage buildings, in particular the limestone Maritime Museum Shipwreck Galleries opposite, and to provide high levels of energy efficiency. The LED facade lighting helps to provide a visual night time focus to this area of the West End and to the Notre Dame Campus.

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The use of twin wall high efficiency solar glass together with internal timber louvres provides a high degree of protection and control over solar heat gain. Locating a 350 seat lecture theatre on the ground floor required the innovative design of a large steel internal truss for the full height of the mid floor level, supporting the first floor at the bottom chord and the second floor at the top chord. A section of the 1856 limestone footings of the Pier Hotel, unearthed by an archeological dig prior to construction commencing, has been left exposed under a glass floor and provides a link to the past with heritage interpretation. The new building, since its completion, has been extensively used by both the university and by the public.