St. Francis de Sales Central Catholic Elementary School-Morgantown, WV
By: Jennifer Walker-Journey

When John Downery first walked into St. Francis de Sales Central Catholic Elementary School in Morgantown, West Virginia, he fell in love. The school, made to resemble an old dairy farm barn, sat on a rolling hill on the outskirts of town with a valley on one side and a ridgeline on the other.

The school began a century ago in two rooms of a home in Morgantown. In 1918, the school moved to a new building where it remained for the next 70 years. In 1990, the elementary school moved into the former St. Francis Central High School building, but the school longed for an identity of its own. By the turn of the century, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston decided to grant that wish, choosing to relocate the school on a sprawling patch of land that for three generations before had served as a dairy farm.

The diocese called on Celli-Flynn Brennan, located in Pittsburgh, to draw up the plans for the new campus. Celli-Flynn Brennan had worked on several projects with the diocese. The primary need was to build a parochial institution the size and scale for 475 preschool and elementary students.

"The building program required pre-K through 8th grade classrooms, a cafeteria, a full high school-sized gymnasium, a large library/learning center, computer labs, art classrooms, music classrooms, and all other facilities normally associated with a progressive elementary program," said Margaret DeLeeuw, marketing director for Celli-Flynn Brennan. "It was also important that the architecture answered the specific need to provide distinct learning spaces for the different-aged school children, while providing a central gathering space for the entire student body."

With that goal in mind, Celli-Flynn Brennan designed separate wings for the upper and lower grades and positioned the library/learning commons area in a central location to serve as the "hub" of the school. This area was designed with two-story ceilings with exposed steel beams and inviting shades of yellow and red. A separate building adjacent to the first was designed to serve as the preschool. The interior was appropriately scaled for young toddlers with bright and lively colors to complement the playful architecture.

The exterior of the 47,000-square-foot campus buildings played off the farm imagery associated with the dairy farm that previously occupied the property.

"The building includes a silo, gambrel-shaped roofs similar to barn roofs on the classroom wings, and architecture reminiscent of the stone house for the pre-K classrooms," DeLeeuw said. 

Because Morgantown was so centrally located in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, meetings with diocese school principals were often held on the campus. This is how Downery, who was with a Catholic school in Huntington, West Virginia, first came to see the new St. Francis campus. And, last summer, when the principal position came available at the new school, Downery knew this was where he belonged.

"First of all, it is a gorgeous facility," he said. "But, from a pragmatic level, the architecture is much more in line with the needs of 21st century learning."

The building was designed to work with students' needs in mind. Classrooms were designed to be open and airy with plenty of natural light flowing in. Smartboards were put in several of the classrooms, and materials were selected so as not to impede wireless access. The common areas encourage fellowship among students, and panoramic windows showcasing stunning views of the land were strategically placed in art and music classrooms to encourage creative expression.

The space is also flexible, allowing the building to serve not only students during school hours, but community and Catholic organization needs on weeknights, weekends, and summer holidays.

St. Francis already had a strong reputation as a quality elementary school, but the new campus makes "selling" the school to prospective parents much easier, according to Downery.

"If I can get a young mother into this building, I'm going to get an enrollment 70 percent of the time," he said, adding that since St. Francis moved to its new campus, its enrollment has diversified to include more students from different religions and ethnicities.

"I would say that the building is definitely a big boon for this school," Downery said. "As soon as (parents) walk in this school and see the building and the beautiful views, they want their kids here."

Celli-Flynn Brennan, located in Pittsburgh, strives to "wow" every client by improving the environment and providing superior architecture that realizes aspirations and desires, www.cfbarchitects.com.