Masonry Magazine December 1989 Page. 47
Photography: Sam Fentress
Masonry Was The Solution
Convert Hospital Into Modern School
Hancock Elementary School
St. Louis, Missouri
Architect: The Christner Partnership, Inc.
Mason Contractor: Schmidt Brick & Stone Contracting
The new Hancock Elementary School is at once an example of an architect's creativity giving new function to an existing structure and evidence of a community's commitment to educating its young. The Hancock Place School District is located in a lower middle-income area of south St. Louis County and has always been under tight budget restrictions. Three years ago the community was faced with the additional burden of needing to renovate and improve its elementary school facilities. After a community campaign for better education that included a successful tax levy election, Hancock now has a new school that rivals the best school facilities in the country. Hancock Elementary School, serving 1,000 youngsters, opened this fall to celebrating residents. Located on a knoll not far from the Mississippi River, the facility was once St. Mary on the Mount Hospital/Rehabilitation Center and served residents for eight decades. The Christner Partnership, a St. Louis architectural firm, recommended converting the hospital's therapy gymnasium, a 39,000-square-foot addition that included administrative offices, into classrooms, a library, cafeteria and administrative offices. With its post and beam construction, the pavilion lent itself to educational purposes with minimal renovation. However, the four-story main hospital building, located next to the pavilion and dating back to the turn of the century, had to be razed. Its load-bearing walls could not easily accommodate the spatial requirements of contemporary classrooms and other school space. In its place a two-story addition of classrooms along with a gymnasium and stage were constructed. The two buildings join and harmonize with color and shape yet are distinct in their dimensions and materials. From the outside, the low-lying pavilion with its pre-cast concrete front and deep maroon window panels projects a conservative, trim image. Playing off the pavilion, the classroom addition adds brighter playful lines to the school with its more economical pre-finished concrete block. In trying to match the new construction with the standing building, the architects considered the options of brick, painted block and pre-finished concrete block. The pre-finished block offered the best solutions from both the design and economical perspectives. With its "parchment" coloring, it blended well with the pavilion's pre-cast concrete in color and texture.
The varied uses of masonry gives expression to the new addition. Both buildings are linked by the same pre-cast concrete parapet. In the middle of the new structure is a row of scored blocks that stretches the length of the building. At the base of the new building is split-face block resembling the parapet. The addition also has the same maroon-lined windows and crenulated trim along the roof line as the pavilion. Interspersed maroon and pink glazed blocks are positioned between windows on the second floor that subtly bring the two building together.