Oak Point Associates was hired by the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation to design a new, pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 school that would allow Saint Patrick School to accommodate a growing student population on a new site. As part of the move, Saint Patrick School was renamed Saint Patrick Academy and transitioned from a parochial school to an independent Catholic school run by the lay board of directors from the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation. The new school facility is located on the community campus in Portsmouth, on a 10.75-acre parcel of land. It was designed with capacity for 220 students.
The new, 24,000 sf facility includes classroom spaces, small group learning areas, music and arts learning space, library space, a cafeteria and a chapel. The site design includes playground areas for Pre-K and K-8 student populations, a basketball court, a soccer field, outdoor cafeteria seating, contemplative space, area for food production, and an amphitheater.
Saint Patrick Academy opened 150 years after the original school’s formation. One inspiration for the overall composition and massing came from the school’s namesake St. Patrick and his use of the shamrock to explain the Trinity-- how God is both three and one. The program has three defined areas-- elementary school, public area, and middle school; three separate building volumes joined together by contrasting glass connector elements. This separation reduces scale and speaks to the identity of the different areas.