Hidden River Middle School
Summit Avenue is the “Beverly Hills” of Minnesota. It’s lined with beautiful Victorian mansions – including Minnesota’s Governor’s mansion- as well as the St. Paul Cathedral, the James J. Hill house, and the hundred-year-old Hidden River Middle School. Saint Paul Public Schools engaged DLR Group to reimagine the old building to become more conducive to delivering the district’s vision for middle school education. Along with significant interior remodeling, a new addition was designed to reorient the building towards Summit Avenue with a clearly identifiable front entry.
The monumental entry repurposes a previous library addition by extending what had been double-height windows into a portico with an inset glass façade. The glass box addition- holding administrative and special education spaces- encloses a corner between the historic 1926 East façade and the Summit Avenue façade in a two-story mass.
The timber curtain wall system supported the school’s sustainability goals through low embodied carbon materials, and lower energy costs due to its high thermal performance.
In articulating the façade design, the architects drew inspiration from the existing building’s traditional ornamentation along with local geography and hydrology. The glass addition’s upper portion received slightly undulating vertical fins connoting geological formations while the lower portion’s clear glass implies the aquafer below that became the school’s namesake – the Hidden River. While the fins provide some daylight moderation, they also serve to provide greater privacy for sensitive special education programing on the second floor. The spacing, delineation, and color of the fin structure as well as the use of spandrel glass and aluminum in-fill panels relate to the 1926 building’s stone detailing and muntin patterning. The addition’s glass façade design was extended past the entry portico to re-clad a dated 1970’s brick façade with new punched openings and provide visual balance along Summit Avenue.
Timber curtain wall provided a ready solution to the design aspirations of the project. The timber curtain wall system supported the school’s sustainability goals through low embodied carbon materials, and lower energy costs due to its high thermal performance. The timbers are composed of Southern Yellow Pine glulams with a warm stain color to coordinate with other interior finishes. The vertical fin’s aluminum support-structure is hung from the timber curtain wall with engineered aluminum knife plates attached to the timber back members. This approach greatly reduces the thermal transfer of the knife plates preventing energy loss as well as condensation issues. The fin structure is assembled with through-bolts and screw fasteners allowing for future glass replacement and maintenance.
The new addition brings dynamism along Summit Avenue without distracting from the traditional beauty of the building’s 1926 East façade. The project’s design is a physical expression of how philosophies on education have shifted over the years from hierarchical modes to more active and transparent modes supporting student growth and achievement.
Design
DLR Group
Construction
Kraus Andersen
Glazing Contractor
Capital City Glass
Location
St. Paul, Minnesota
System
Timber Curtain Wall
Fin components by Industrial Louvers Inc.
Exterior Materials
Dark bronze anodized aluminum
Interior Materials
Factory-applied stain on Southern Yellow Pine glulams