Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
By: Jennifer Walker-Journey

Soon after the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish was founded in 1954 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, a school was founded to serve the Catholic formation and education of the children. It was a modest beginning, with a few classes gathering in what later became the school’s gym. But even though Visitation was a small Catholic school, the parish had the vision to create an institution where young people could worship and develop their own God-given intellectual, physical, social, and personal growth.     
 
A big expression of faith in the future of the school came in the 1970s, when the parish built a junior high building on the campus. The building had a basement and a first floor, where it served between 668 and 790 students in grades pre-kindergarten through eighth.

But the school envisioned more growth, not necessarily in numbers but in amenities it would offer to its students. With little room to expand outward on the parish property (the church held plans to build a new parish hall sometime in the future), church leadership decided to have the junior high building constructed in a way that it could hold another floor on top in the future. The plans even included an elevator shaft, which remained unused and vacant.

The school quickly built a reputation as an excellent educational facility, one that Sister Diane Marie says she heard about even before she was named principal in 1989. In her tenure, the parish has renovated the old gym, adding bleachers, staging, and a sound-absorbing ceiling, as well as adding outdoor baseball/softball and football/soccer fields. Soon, the school faced banner enrollment that required another kindergarten class. But, where could they put the new students?

It was a good predicament to be in, but the parish needed a plan. Was this a sign that the school was ready to build the new floor above the now-30-year-old junior high building? And, if they built the new floor, how could they put it to the best and most efficient use?

To answer these questions, the parish organized a committee to look at the school’s needs from every perspective. The most pressing issue was the need for a new kindergarten classroom. The group also saw an opportunity to expand its small computer center and library/media center. Both were housed in small rooms in the basement. As the group began discussing ideas, they identified a need for new administrative offices and an art center. The construction of the third floor also provided an opportunity to renovate the older areas of the building that could also be reworked to serve these needs.

Visitation called on architect Thomas P. Kase, president of AEM Architects, Inc., in nearby Reading, Pennsylvania, to design the addition and renovation. His first surprise was the foresight the original designers had to build the roof (with joists and concrete slab construction) to become another floor.

“This was invaluable to permit the school to add the necessary space to meet the enrollment and education program,” he said.

Construction on the 13,500-square-foot addition and 13,000-square-foot renovation started in the summer and continued into the school year, which meant construction crews and the parish had to work together to keep classes flowing. To further complicate matters, heavy rains created flooding issues that required the relocation of students at times.

“The intent of the phasing plan was to construct the third floor walls and roof during the summer and have all heavy lifting complete prior to return of school and enable the building to be made watertight so that it would not impact the school space below,” Kase said. “As with all plans, there is usually something that comes up that requires adjustments to the schedule. The original construction documents indicated a lightweight concrete topping placed on top of the structural concrete deck insulation and sloped for drainage. It was discovered that this material was quite difficult to remove and pushed Phase I off schedule. The end result was that the third floor addition could not be made totally watertight.”

Then there was the issue with asbestos tile that had to be removed when the lower levels were renovated.

“This required communication with the faculty, students, and parents to assure them that the remediation was being executed under all of the applicable regulations, specifically for the negative pressurization of the remediation area so that all particulate would be kept from migrating to the occupied spaces,” Kase said.

Sister Diane Marie remembers the small glitches that arose along the road to completion, calling them “kind of challenging and very creative. But, you look back on it now and say that it all worked out.”

When adding to an existing building, the exterior design must be considered.

“The third floor addition fenestration and brickwork mimicked the floors below in order to blend the two parts of the building as if they were one,” Kase said.

Split-face masonry units were also used at the two new stair towers at either end of the multi-story wing to frame the building.

“The energy-inefficient original windows were also replaced at this time so that the end result is one of a building that most people would not recognize as being built more than 30 years apart,” said Kase.

The building was also made more handicap-accessible with the addition of an elevator in the old shaft and a ramp constructed between two sections of the building that are at different levels.

The building now houses nine junior high classrooms, three kindergarten classrooms, a science lab (plus a botanical center which was already constructed), an honors math room, library/media center, an arts center, a state-of-the-art computer and technology lab, and an after-school care room.

AME Architects is a firm that strives to design buildings that are exceptionally well-documented to meet the program and budget requirements outlined by their clients, www.aem-arch.com.