Description

St. Andrew’s College is set within a generous 45 hectare campus along the rolling river valley of Oak Ridges Moraine. This pastoral landscape of mature trees, numerous playing fields and the distinctive character of its red brick Georgian Revival buildings has considerable merits both as a place to grow up and as a memorable heritage setting in its own right. The facilities were, however, becoming outdated and constrained. Many of the original buildings date back to 1926, when the school was relocated to this edge-of-city site. The design recognised the need to bring facilities up to modern standards without losing this historical quality. The master plan established key strategic requirements such as the need for a new arrivals court on the north side of the campus to alleviate traffic congestion.

One issue was to improve the sense of community by developing new gathering spaces indoors and outdoors. This was an important catalyst prompting the architects’ first move; by enclosing and redefining a left-over area of space between two existing buildings, the school has gained a large communal area and a new heart. Complete with its elegant timber roof and clearstory glazing this area connects the original campus buildings of the 1920s to the postwar buildings located on the north side of the campus. It also provides a public exhibition area for student art work produced in the adjacent art studios.

A suite of new classrooms in the middle school is furnished with specially designed timber fittings and integrated wireless Internet access. There is seating for up to 20 students in each. Special consideration has been given to classroom acoustics in recognition of the need for quiet concentrated study, which was sometimes a problem in the earlier classrooms. Student lockers are located immediately outside each classroom, integrated into the spatial architecture of the generous light filled circulation areas. The enhanced sense of arrival and improved circulation areas became a positive by-product of the major new build programme, which has provided generous laboratories and libraries, a new gym plus the aforementioned classrooms. This has in turn enabled the adaptive re-use of spaces in the existing buildings; for example the original gym, which was too small, was converted into a state-of-the-art music and art facility.

The overall design emphasises transparency to encourage a sense of community and to take advantage of the views to the surrounding countryside. An enfilade of glazed openings is cut into both end façades of the new middle school to provide extended views through the length of the classrooms on each floor. The materiality of the additions is harmonised with the existing structures by the adoption of a common palette of materials comprising red brick, Manitoba Tyndall stone and copper. The massing of the gymnasium is scaled down to that of the historic buildings and adjacent trees. The use of rustic Wiarton stone paving and ipewood screens to the façades provide a suitable contextual reference. This attention to detail both in practical terms and in the aesthetic use of materials in their correct place, the strategic opening up of views and vistas has created a school fit for the 21st century, yet one which retains its historic character.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.