St. Benedict's Elementary School
Square Footage: 5000
The St. Benedict's Center is a public religious community affiliated with the the Diocese of Worcester MA. Located on a beautiful hill overlooking the Nashua River in Still River, MA.
The project is an addition and alteration to the existing elementary school. St. Benedict's has been fortunate to enroll more students than their current school can hold. The program is doubling the amount of classrooms, a commercial grade kitchen for the sisters to prepare meals for lunches and events, dining spaces for brothers and sisters, and a function hall in the basement to hold large events.
Due to the site being on top of a hill and having incredible views of the landscape around, a main concept of ours was to maximize these views from the most utilized spaces within the building. The team proposed this to members of St. Benedict's by designing a hefty amount of glazing overlooking the river and opening up the function hall, dining spaces, and large classrooms to these views. St. Benedict's was excited about this focus and this drove how the rest of the project was designed.
The construction method St. Benedict's uses is unconventional, but extraordinary. The brothers and volunteers associated with the Center will be constructing this building to match the aesthetic of the original structure. It is simply amazing that the owners and users of the building will be constructing it themselves. This has made collaboration with the Center and consultants even more paramount than on an average project.
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First Floor Plan