St Charles Catholic Elementary School

A growing community is prosperous with growing minds and with the dramatic expansion of Bradford West Gwillimbury, it was time for the children to be prosperous in new learning facilities. The 53,655 sq. ft. replacement school was completed on the site of the existing Catholic school just in time for the young parents that have moved north in search of space and to purchase affordable housing with a majority of the demolition completed during summer break. This meant the dust was settled by the time children started the new term.

With the focus of a growing community, the School Board had an urgency to focus on extending their offering to the community with new facility features that would accommodate this growth. The 470 pupil school includes 4 kindergartens, 15 classrooms, one special education room, a resource room, high ceiling gymnasium, library and a chapel. What is most unique is the 4,500 sq. ft. childcare facility with three rooms for Toddlers, Preschoolers and infants program and includes a family centre.

The building is two storeys constructed with a large windowed central grand entrance that frames a floating Cross. This foyer entrance leads down a corridor through the heart of the structure and out to the back grounds. From a plan view this corridor creates another cross with a perpendicular corridor intersecting it.

Careful consideration was made in the planning process to establish a functional site layout on the same site as the operational school and in planning of the construction and demolition phases. The new school has been situated behind the existing building with a new road and access point that was part of the land development. Special consideration for dual entry of the site was sought from the municipality to allow new access to the site while existing access was in use and for it to remain after project completion. Coordination with the neighbouring developer was required for a new street and services to be constructed. This has become the new entrance to the site, with school bus drop located here while the old entrance accesses the new childcare centre.

Salter Pilon Architecture’s in-house Interior Design Team tie central wood features throughout the building while factoring cost reduction through materials to meet budget and remain durable in their tenure. Our team approached this project to reflect the Catholic religion with design elements and a central space that captures the heart and soul of the school spirit and the young pupils.