Benilde St. Margaret’s School
By: Jennifer Walker-Journey

 Benilde-St. Margaret's School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, was founded in 1974 when St. Margaret's Academy, a Catholic secondary school for girls, and Benilde High School, a Catholic secondary school for boys, merged. St. Margaret's was founded in 1907, and Benilde started in a schoolhouse built in 1956. When the two schools merged, classes were held in the old Benilde building. In 1989, a junior high building was added to the campus.

The school pulled 7th through 12th grade students from all reaches of the Twin Cities, and its students excelled not only in academics but also in sports from alpine skiing and hockey to golf and lacrosse. By 1998, Benilde-St. Margaret's had earned the prestigious Blue Ribbon School of Excellence title by the U.S. Department of Education. Despite its excellent reputation, Benilde-St. Margaret's was ready for some updating. For a school steeped in tradition on the heels of the 25th anniversary, thorough planning for the decades ahead was paramount.

"The school decided that it was important to step back from individual repairs and improvements and perform a holistic look at their campus to better understand how this matched their current facilities," said Dean S. Beeninga, AIA/NCARB/LEED, a partner with ATS&R Planners/Architects/Engineers based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "They decided it was wise to perform a 20-year master plan to specifically designate where each dollar would be spent for their facilities as funds became available."

With as much as 60 years of long-term relationships with individual school clients and approximately $2 billion of school construction projects in the last 10 years alone, ATS&R was a logical choice to oversee the school's master plan. The plan would address the school's physical and organization needs. What school leadership did not want was to increase its enrollment, which is at approximately 1,200 students, but provide amenities that the students and staff deserved. They also wanted the new addition to reach out to the greater community and provide the school with spaces that would complement their current living environment.

The master plan included a new library that would be placed near the entry for the community and after-hours functions. An auditorium would give the community the proper acoustic and outfitted space for the drama and music programs to perform. A new chapel, which would serve as the heart of the school, would offer the community an opportunity to further connect with the school. The addition of 10 new classrooms with natural light, technology infrastructure, and a high degree of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) would replace classrooms, which were previously in the basement and lacked the amenities the school wanted for its students. A new administrative wing located near the entry where the existing classrooms were located would house guidance and development offices. And, a portion would be dedicated to the art department, musical-vocal rehearsal, and the Robotics Lab.

The master plan would also have to address some important organization needs.

"Three administrative groups and two schools, which were previously scattered throughout the campus, needed to be consolidated and reorganized to tie to the existing parking/site entry area," Beeninga said.

Consolidation and reorganization of the campus would specifically address key areas of concern – increased security and supervision from the office to the entry proximity; the clear marking of where the only main entry is located; the physical tie of the parking to the main entry; and the flexibility that the lobby space and the library offer to the entry and drop-off area.

School leadership launched a capital campaign, "Enriching Our Legacy of Excellence," and, within two years, the school had raised $11 million, enough to build the first phase. The project added 53,500 square feet to the campus and renovated another 20,000 square feet of the existing buildings.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Benilde-St. Margaret's addition is the chapel tower that sits along the side street. Atop it is a 40-foot-tall cross that reaches nearly 70 feet in the air. The space is designed in a more contemporary setting where the worship wraps around the circular raised alter. 

Exterior materials were carefully selected not only to add visual appeal in the form of color and texture, but also to keep maintenance costs low. 

"The use of a deep body face brick, accented with the existing color of the building located at the entry, street side classrooms, new auditorium and chapel, gave the entire facility a new fresh look," he said. "Sustainable features of maximized cavity wall construction, solar glazing, no maintenance exterior, and use of natural materials on the interior reduces long-term maintenance costs for the school."

The school is currently working on Phase 2 of the master plan, which includes new baseball, softball, and practice fields, as well as a new stadium that includes a new synthetic turf competition football/soccer field. And, the school is raising money to add another phase, which will include more junior high classrooms and offices.

ATS&R Planners/Architects/Engineers is uniquely qualified to provide the services required for building solutions that are responsive to the needs of both their education clients and their communities, www.atsr.com.