The firm recently worked with St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore to renovate an old elementary school for a Head Start pre-k program.
In April, the East Baltimore community gathered outside the former Saint James and John Elementary School to celebrate the reopening of the 1860s three-story brick structure.
With a renovation designed by Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects, the school will be home to a Head Start program for St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore.
The day after the ribbon cutting in April, pre-k students filed into their freshly painted and newly furnished rooms, ready to learn.
‘Deep experience brought great value’
The Head Start program at St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore provides comprehensive early childhood education to low-income families. The program is designed to promote school readiness, ensure that children are healthy and well-nourished, and provide a foundation for lifelong learning and success.
The renovated site features 10 refurbished classrooms, training rooms, office space, new restrooms, and recreational space. M&D also incorporated an array of improvements to modernize for fire safety and enhance the building aesthetically and functionally.
"Murphy & Dittenhafer has done a great deal of work in designing school buildings and in renovating historic structures,” says John Schiavone, president and CEO of St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore. “That deep experience brought great value to the design process, allowed us to navigate many challenges successfully, and resulted in a successful project."
A hidden danger
The project involved planning and design work for adaptive reuse of a more than 150-year-old historic school building. The original occupancy capacity remains the same, but the building required significant upgrades.
Murphy & Dittenhafer added a restroom on the second floor. It refreshed the school with new flooring, ceilings, and restroom fixtures. Portions of the electrical system were upgraded, and new HVAC systems were installed where required.
As with many historic structures, what began as primarily a cosmetic upgrade shifted when the team encountered a significant problem lurking in the attic. Over time, some of the slate on the roof had cracked, and a major leak had caused the main roof trusses to fail.
“Any major snowfall could have caused the roof to collapse,” says Architectural Designer Bryan Wright, who served as project manager and construction administrator for part of the project.
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The project was paused for a few months while the clients decided how to proceed. Then the trusses were bolstered. The entire roof had to be jacked up and the wooden trusses married up to steel.
For Wright, he started the project primarily as an Architectural Designer in April 2021. He then served as project manager and construction administrator from early June until mid-October 2021, when the project was paused because of the roof truss investigation. With the expansion of the project scope and complexity, M&D Architect Peter Schwab collaborated with Bryan in January 2022 to help resolve and manage technical issues.
Despite the struggles and delays, Wright enjoyed the experience.
"It's fun to be able to answer and figure out problems. It's nice to see things going from paper to reality,” he says. “Even if an old building seems like it can’t be fixed and redone, there’s always a way to make it work.”
Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects took on the Architecture, Interior Design, & Overall Project Management for the new Bedford Elementary School, and the outcome is impactful.