Our Lady and St. Francis Secondary School Extension (former):
Designed by the Gillespie, Kidd & Coia practice in the early 1960s, and opened in 1964. The building served as an extension to the former Our Lady & St Francis Secondary School which dated from the 1910-1920s. The 1960s extension is a four storey concrete framed structure, the first two floors are held within a brick and glass infilled concrete frame, then the next two floors and roof sit like floating rafts stacking skyward with fully glazed strips running along the south and north elevations gazing out over the expanse of Glasgow Green opposite and the open space to the north. On the roof is an angular and triangular structural concrete form, below in the north facade the vertical circulation route through the building is distinguished by a break in the facade design soaring upwards in line with the siting of the rooftop structure. The building then steps down form the four storey block to a long low structure sweeping northwards. Overall the building recalls the designs of Le Corbusier and has a grand almost brutalist style. It's use of blue/black bricks, large amounts of glazing, and timber shuttered concrete with the grain pattern of the timber shuttering providing a delicacy between the relief patterns and the brute strength and mass of the concrete. In addition to these features the partly exposed concrete frames also contributes to create a modern movement building startlingly different from it's more meek surroundings. The rooftop form peeks and prods out, over and above the building providing a contrast to the rectalinear forms beneath, though it's hard not to compare the form to a rooftop concrete skip (see north elevation photograph below). Originally designed and used as a school, the building closed in 1989 and is currently used as offices by the Wise Group. Category A listed.
street address: 72 Charlotte Street, Glasgow, G1
Latitude / Longitude: 55.853472,-4.241243 (sourced using Google Maps)
south-west corner and south elevation onto Greendyke Street
view up the south-west corner
brick, glass and timber shuttered concrete
south elevation
view up the south elevation, note the concrete beam isolated in front of the stepped back glazing of the vertical circulation route of the building
view skyward with the roof top structure peeking out above
curved arch breaking the rectalinear forms
south-east corner. The four storey building and the projecting lower storeys
basement glazing in the concrete strip that runs part way along the south elevation and then turns the corner northwards. The strong concrete forms of this strip recalls the fortified lower floor of Italian pallazzi
east elevation
view north at ground level looking along the east elevation
glass, concrete, brick
east elevation
east elevation and partial view of the north elevation of the main four storey block
entrance at the north end of the east elevation, with a rounded brick form to the left of the wooden doors, a similar use of a curved drum-like form is to be seen in the later 1969 St Charles of Borromeo Church in Kelvinside, also designed by the Gillespie, Kidd & Coia practice.
north elevation, the temporary siting of a skip in the carpark brings inescapable comparisons to the roof top form.
north-east corner
concrete roof top form
west end of the north elevation and view of the forms of the building stepping down and simultaneously stepping up
detail of the north-west corner
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mid-city (1918-79)
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