Our Lady & St. Francis School (extension), Charlotte St. (Gillespie, Kidd and Coia)

Job files, images and drawings related to project.

This extension to an established girls' school occupies a site of some local historical and architectural interest at the corner of Greendyke St. and Charlotte St. The school was the former location of an Adam house occupied by the prominent Glasgow merchant and philanthropist, David Dale.

The area was restricted and bounded on the north and west sides by the existing school buildings and a drill hall. To the south the view extends across Glasgow Green and the river to the Gorbals/Hutchesontown redevelopment. The brief required the provision of 22, 500 sq. feet of specialised accommodation, including an Assembly Hall, stage, gymnasium and library, which, together with their ancillary apartments, form a double storey height podium block fronting both streets and occupying the whole site.

The restricted area acting upon the complex requirements of the accommodation, necessitated an intense exploitation of the whole site and thus produced a continuation of the established pattern of city street architecture which formed a physical and visual boundary to the adjacent green space. Furthermore, the building had to come to terms with a mixture of architectural styles in an area of diverse land use and be capable of withstanding the normal pressures of city life at street level and also, if possible, point the way to a revitalisation of a sector of the city which at the time was decaying but harboured great potential.

The solution adopted took the form of a strongly modelled building solidly enclosed at low level with durable materials of a subdued colour, sparsely pierced with windows. On the upper floors the modelling, provides control of sunlight and glare, permits the comfortable use of extensive glazing to take advantage of the views over and beyond the adjoining green space.

The material has been arranged using original Gillespie Kidd and Coia project reference codes.

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Catalogued by Tracy Wilkinson, GKC Project Archivist

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Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents.

This material has been appraised in line with Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections standard procedures.