Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School GLA Upgrade
Location: George Town | Tasmania
Status: Construction Completed 2014
The buildings comprising the Star of the Sea was considered to be the forgotten child in the school community. Having had no major capital works money spent on the facilities in decades it was time for the junior school to have its day. Classroom for kinder to grade 6 were all in line for a major upgrade along with the associated central space.
The concept for the redevelopment was to reactivate the unusable internal gathering pit and to reconnect the buildings with the senior school located across the street. To this end a curvaceous ribbon greeted the student or visitor at the new entry doors and drew you into the heart of the complex. This central space was rebuilt to refocus the school onto a community gathering area with a stage providing access to all classrooms.
The stage was configured such that it could be used either from the inside or be switched to be used from the outside. The classrooms have all been reconfigured to provide connectivity between paired GLA’s with new fittings and a colour palette.
The local community is very fortunate to be able to use the schools facilities outside school hours and it was heard from one source that the central space provided a fantastic gathering space that rivalled other schools in the state. Well done Star of the Sea for being committed to creating spaces in the school that are equal to the best in the state.