Conestoga High School, Renovation and Expansion

Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania

Firm

Heckendorn Shiles Architects

Client

Tredyffrin/Easttown School District

Area

94,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$34,700,000

Completion Date

09/2021

Don Pearce Photography

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Design team
David Farabaugh, TJ Barszczewski, Ariel Ricciuti

The expansion and renovation of Conestoga High School provide a comprehensive 21st-century educational environment. Existing conditions and utilities, site constraints and a complicated sloping topography were balanced with opportunities for enhanced instructional space for the design. Most important, the planning responded to Conestoga’s need to remain open and operational during construction.

The addition centers on a translucent roofed atrium playing off the silhouette of a Conestoga wagon. The daylighted atrium provides breakout spaces for small group instruction and study areas, leading to STEAM classrooms beyond. Art classrooms deliberately open onto the atrium to enhance instructional space and serve as a display gallery. The “Fab Lab” provides an innovative and collaborative space for art, science, engineering and math.

The new atrium moves the students from the existing school into the atrium and classroom addition. Building renovations provide an expanded cafeteria to accommodate additional students, expanded core classroom space, upgraded science labs, fitness facility expansion, additional FCS instructional classroom, library expansion, upgraded nurse’s suite, additional restrooms and student services expansion.