Catholic school board chair Kathy Glasgo is seen taking a virtual tour of the division's new K-9 school during an open house Tuesday. Construction on Holy Trinity Academy is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Through a virtual experience provided by FWBA Architects, attendees of Tuesday evenings open house for the new K-9 Catholic school were able to take a virtual tour throughout the new facility.
By wearing a virtual headset and using a game console controller, users could “walk” freely around Holy Trinity Academy to gain a real perspective of the new entrance area, hallways, two full-sized gymnasiums and many other features that went into the design of the new educational space.
And for those more comfortable ‘viewing’ present reality, the three-hour open house featured several renderings and designs. As well, several members of the design and architectural team involved with the 14-month design process were on hand to answer questions from the public.
Project architect David Cocks told the News that his team worked collaboratively with the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education to meet the future needs of teachers and students in the new space, designed for increased accessibility while improving programming offered to students, including those attending neighbouring Monsignor McCoy High School.
“The theatre we see is over on the west of the school, it’s adjacent to the new bus lane between McCoy and the new school facility,” said Cocks. “That’s so high school students can easily come across the new school site and use the theatre.”
Along with a new 380-seat performing arts theatre, Holy Trinity will boast specialized classrooms for music, arts, dance, foods, woodworking and sciences, as well as two full-sized gymnasiums that may also be utilized by students from other Catholic schools throughout the city.
“It’s a K to 12 campus for the school division,” says Cocks, who explains the local Catholic division has been working for several years to raise additional funding to contribute to the amenities of Holy Trinity Academy.
“The theatre, the fitness room, the dance room, the football change room, none of those types of amenities are typical for a school this size,” Cocks said. “I know it’s been years that the school division has been working with the government to try to achieve some of the things that they wanted for this facility, that idea of creating a campus with McCoy.”
To pay homage to Catholic history in Medicine Hat, school board chair Kathy Glasgo says the large two-storey school foyer will display three original large stained-glass windows that were once part of the city’s first Catholic school, St. Theresa’s Academy that was built in 1914.
“That’s going to be our sacred space,” said Glasgo, who explained the windows were designed and fabricated in France and were gifted and shipped to Medicine Hat between 1913-14.
After St. Theresa’s Academy was closed in the early 1970s, the windows eventually ended up sitting in a storage unit on Vancouver Island for more than 40 years before the division was able to return them to Medicine Hat.
“There’ll be an altar that will go with this window,” said Glasgo. “We can have that sacred space.”
Members of the design team shared Glasgo’s excitement around the main foyer that will be used for a school gathering place.
“We’ve got this big, open two-storey gathering space with this large stair that sort of goes up and connects the main entrance to the library,” said Cocks. “Then at each sort of tier on those stairs there’s common areas where students can sit and work on their projects and gather in different seating areas.”
The project has gone to tender and shovels are expected to break ground in early 2025. The division expects construction to be completed by fall of 2027.
