Page 14 - Gonzaga in the 1970s
P. 14
Fr Murray oversaw two building projects.
The first, the ‘block of eight’ additional
classrooms, finally resolved the problem of space
caused by the doubling of the size of the Senior
School.
Fr Lee’s relates (The Gonzaga Record 1986)
how the positioning of this new building caused
considerable debate at the planning stage. It is a
fascinating account, involving questions of lost
perspective, access for emergency vehicles and the
aesthetics of the building materials. It reveals much
about Bill Lee’s own sensitivity to the school’s setting
in its broad landscape, with the two original Bewley
houses. His sense of loss was, by his own account,
sufficiently overcome by the subtlety of architect
Andrew Devane’s integration of the new and the old,
and the execution by the builders, Cooney Jennings.
To the right of the familiar clock tower and entrance completed in
1957: the block of eight classrooms, completed in time for the
autumn term, 1977
13
The first, the ‘block of eight’ additional
classrooms, finally resolved the problem of space
caused by the doubling of the size of the Senior
School.
Fr Lee’s relates (The Gonzaga Record 1986)
how the positioning of this new building caused
considerable debate at the planning stage. It is a
fascinating account, involving questions of lost
perspective, access for emergency vehicles and the
aesthetics of the building materials. It reveals much
about Bill Lee’s own sensitivity to the school’s setting
in its broad landscape, with the two original Bewley
houses. His sense of loss was, by his own account,
sufficiently overcome by the subtlety of architect
Andrew Devane’s integration of the new and the old,
and the execution by the builders, Cooney Jennings.
To the right of the familiar clock tower and entrance completed in
1957: the block of eight classrooms, completed in time for the
autumn term, 1977
13
