Description

Packer Collegiate Institute comprised of five loosely connected buildings, which had been added piecemeal over the course of a century from 1854 to 1969. In addition to these buildings, there was a church, St. Ann’s, no longer in use, and a parish house all closely connected but not fully utilised for educational purposes. Prior to the new commission, Packer was using only the cramped main school building, due to the run-down and disconnected condition of the rest. The challenge for the architects therefore was to adapt and integrate all parts of this complex into a progressive 21st century academic programme exploiting all parts to benefit the expanding student body. Improvement work, which was on-going for over four years, has resulted in a complete reorganisation of the plan, expanding accommodation into the Renwick Church, allowing for the lower, middle and upper schools to each have their own self-contained zones. The parish house has been re-configured as a shared dining room for the whole school.

The main challenge for the designers was converting and integrating the church interior into school accommodation. Space for more classrooms was a priority and the old church was too large for its traditional purpose. The key planning move was the insertion of 18 classrooms into the former church, serviced by two ‘open’ corridors positioned on either side of the nave. This provides two full-height aisles along both sides of the building. Corridors occur at each level alternating between the north and south side of the church (see cross section). This creates a sense of spatial variety and dilutes the impact of noise from students changing lessons and socialising in the break-out areas.

Contemporary materials and modern lighting technology is used carefully to enhance the contrast between the exposed brick and gothic detailing of the original building, and the shiny futuristic new classroom pods with their lightweight bridges and high level access routes. It is this contrast between old and new which gives the project a rich and evocative spatial language. Lightweight, sensitive engineering solutions ensure that the original and the new structural elements work in harmony. The new steel and concrete structural system is set within a volume of load bearing masonry walls, cast iron columns and wooden floor joists which forms a single integrated composition. Mechanical equipment for ventilation was placed so that it does not disfigure the existing rooftop profiles, an issue of great concern to the community, who were consulted widely during the development of the scheme.

Equally the future of the original stained glass, which was felt to be inappropriate to the new secular function, was carefully considered. Some of the windows are of high quality with a vivid range of colours, others are more modest and some are only lightly patterned. 70% of the high quality glass was removed and taken by various museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art and St. Joseph’s Stained Glass Museum; all are institutions which can care for this artistic legacy. Where stained glass was removed, new insulated glass windows were installed to fit the original tracery profiles. An overlay of simulated lead frames gives the appearance of individual glass elements set in stone frames. The remaining stained glass was restored and reinstalled in the building’s primary façade on the east street elevation. This creates a poetic symmetry between the past and the future.

By balancing the old with the new, the architects have retained the character of the original Victorian church, with its gothic tracery and hanging chandeliers, and successfully inserted a new state of the art four-storey classroom structure, which is no mean feat. Faced with ghost mirrors and lit with warm fluorescent feature lighting, the design allows students to experience the original soaring church interior whilst moving between lessons or enjoying their social time, whilst benefiting from an up to the minute, technology rich learning environment. It is interesting to reflect on how well the internalised world of the classrooms function for study. Perhaps the lack of direct contact to the outside urban landscape beyond the school is in this situation an unforeseen benefit of the unusual design strategy.

Each part of the refurbished building has its own character so that the whole is an integration of dissimilar parts. The new structural system within the walls of the former church is an open and free flowing accommodation compared to the rest of the school which is more conventional and cellular with a central corridor and views onto the surrounding streets from outward looking teaching spaces. The new and the existing form an L shaped plan which wraps around a landscaped courtyard. The parish house, now the only free standing form, has been refurbished. A new circulation plan to cater for the 18 classrooms placed in the church joins up to existing corridors and pathways beneath a new glass atrium. This two and a half-storey volume forms a visual and physical connection to all levels of the school, and at night presents the illuminated façades of the church and Packer buildings at the back to the main school courtyard.

The architects believe that for buildings to survive they must be used, and however sad we may feel about St. Ann’s fall into disuse as a place of worship, its transformation has brought new life and vitality to its venerable structure. The church’s contribution to the wider community is clear as it retains its presence both to the surrounding streets and most importantly to the school’s courtyard, a vibrant new urban space within the community with the school’s main entrance (which is around the corner from the original church entrance). The fusion of old and new has been a sensitive and respectful marriage, very much a result of the close working relationship between the designers and the client community to create a new building which fuses the old into its modern functions. In itself this is a fitting symbol of the school’s ethos and philosophy, an environment for the future which respects and celebrates its past.

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