Description

Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, 1962-4; including extension by same, 1970. 4-storey rectangular-plan school building on falling ground, with square roof block; slightly projecting 3rd floor. Metal frame; marked concrete; metal cladding (metal-coated bitumen). Concrete walkway to 1st floor entrance, set at angle to building, oversailing ground on pilotis Horizontally-orientated fenestration.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-leaf timber door with glazed panels, to right of centre at 1st floor; irregular openings to remainder, including 3 glazed concrete panels (see Notes), double glazing band, with regular astragal pattern to upper band, spanning ground and 1st floors,

lean-to conservatory addition to right at ground; continuous double glazing band with regularly-spaced astragals to upper band at 2nd floor; continuous glazing band with irregularly-placed astragals to 3rd floor. Metal facing between glazing bands.

INTERIOR: gymnasium on lower ground; assembly hall, dining room, classrooms and offices to ground floor; classrooms and stores to 1st floor; specialised classrooms to 2nd floor.

Steel inset, timber-framed, vertical pivoting windows. Flat, timber-joisted, boarded roof, with bitumenous felt roofing.

JANITORS HOUSES: used as nursery (2000), designed en suite, 1962. Built to aback rising ground and accessed on 2 levels. 2-storey, rectangular-plan block, flat-roofed, running N-S by W gate to NE of site. Doors and recessed openings

alternating with window on ground floor to W; continuous band of windows at 1st floor.

E elevation accessible on higher ground by wider doorways with flanking bands of windows.

TECHNICAL BLOCK: en-suite, 1962, 3-storey and part basement on falling ground, technical block, shallow U-plan with bowed projection. Sited to W of main school, courtyard opening to E. 2nd floor jettied and metal-clad. Banded windows to each floor (continuous). Bowed end (metalwork classroom) to S. Central link serving as circulation hall at ground, with woodwork classroom, boys and staff lavatories and stores.

Statement of Interest

Our Lady's High School is an important example of the school buildings of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, and of a transitional period in 20th century Scottish architecture. The splayed out gables are similar in feel to those at Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's Cumbernauld College (1971, see separate listing). 3 concrete panels irregularly placed within the principal elevation (see above) are clearly influenced by the fenestration at

the 1953-7 Friary of La Tourette, Eveux-sur-l'Arbresle, by Le Corbusier (1887-1966). Our Lady's High School is similar in design to the multi-purpose 'megastructure' buildings of the Cumbernauld Town Centre, but on a smaller scale.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17826300

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)