St. Catherine’s School Modernization

schools

Picture Butte, Alberta

St. Catherine’s School is a K-9 school serving Picture Butte and surrounding rural areas. The original 1959 building underwent selective and dramatic changes with the front massing providing a new heart and identity for the school. The new gathering space acts as a node, off which the entry, library, gymnasium, sacred space, drama room and administration are located. The clerestoried space is the new heart of the school: a lunch room, a story-reading environment, a place for team teaching, an audience area and place of private contemplation. It is highlighted by a series of structural steel columns clad with parallam wood members.