Ser-Niños High School, Houston

Providence Classical School, Spring

Our master plan conceived of the school as a a series of buildings grouped around courtyards with a lake as its focal point. A curving walkway creates a cross-campus “main street” that ties the whole composition together, with an intentional interplay of indoor and outdoor spaces. The massing of the classroom buildings allows for several outdoor classrooms. A covered terrace with views out to the lake creates an inviting place to eat lunch. The one-story lower school is located at the front of the campus next to the library and administrative offices. The middle and upper school buildings flank the central quad, with the chapel at one end and the lake at the other. The competition gymnasium is located to the rear of the campus adjacent to the playing fields, with a smaller gymnasium/multi-purpose room off the central quadrangle and adjacent to the library. Across the central quad from this is the cafeteria. A performing arts center is planned adjacent to the competition gymnasium.

Houston Christian High School, Houston

Houston Christian High School’s 45-acre campus is designed to create a college-like atmosphere, with individual buildings built around a cruciform courtyard connected by cloistered walkways. In the center, a “town square” is created by the library, fine arts center, student center, and administration. Small outdoor seating groups adjacent to the cloistered walkways provide opportunities for small group meetings or casual conversations. (Merriman Holt Architects was the Design Architect in association with Bay Architects for the academic quadrangle and gymnasium. Merriman Holt Architects was the Architect for three subsequent phases of work: the fine arts center, the auxiliary gymnasium and the 600-seat chapel).

Early Learning Center, First Presbyterian Church of Lufkin

First Presbyterian Church of Lufkin sought to establish the finest pre-school in the city and to attract young families to the church; with the help of a generous donor, it created the new Early Childhood Learning Center. The one-story building is set on the southern edge of a wooded site and adjacent to the original mid-century church designed by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson. It consists of classrooms, offices, a spacious indoor play room, and expansive exterior decks and playgrounds. It maintains the intimate scale and simple forms of the original buildings by clustering shed roof forms on either side of a lower flat roofed corridor. The canted indoor play room opens to views of a grove of existing trees and a new playground to the south. On the side, the canted form provides a gracious and inviting front door to the school. The new building adopts the existing material palette of masonry, wood veneer, and heavy timber. The broad wood framed overhangs and delicate covered walkways connect the campus together while matching the structural rhythm and scale set by the original buildings.

SER-Niños Charter Middle School, Houston

When a 62,000 sq ft Kroger Store adjacent to the SER-Niños Elementary School closed, the school purchased the building to serve as a home for its middle school, which at that time was located in temporary buildings. Our firm re-clad the west end of the building with metal panels to relate to the existing campus building and create an inviting new entry. We made extensive use of skylights to bring natural light into the building and bright colors to compensate for the building’s lack of windows. Large interior windows bring this borrowed natural light into the classrooms. Outside, large landscaped islands have transformed the barren parking lot.

St. Theresa Catholic Church and School, Houston

Our master plan for St. Theresa Catholic Church provides a gracious new connection between the church and the rest of the parish campus while solving major security and flow problems that have plagued it. The plan moves the gymnasium from the original church fellowship hall to the larger parish community center and restores the fellowship hall to its original function. The resulting plan places all church and school functions in contiguous zones and presents a more inviting image to the community.