Owner: Lambton Kent District School Board
Location: Petrolia, Ontario
Size: 39,400 sf

The existing school from the 1960’s required a significant upgrade. As a result of demand from increasing enrollment, a new building program of renovations and additions was funded. JP Thomson Architects re-invented a number of important aspects of the overall school. Firstly, the site was completely inverted by positioning the new main entrance to the north – facing a new entry courtyard, bus bay, kiss and ride and parking area. This new entrance represents the new personality of the school with its main canopy acting as an analogy to the community’s oil rigging and mining past.

Internally, the school gained 3 new kindergarten rooms, 3 new regular classrooms, a new open library / learning commons, a new 50’ x 70’ gymnasium and a new large administrative office. The gym is equipped with motorized backboards, is divisible by a motorized curtain, a sound system, a server for events requiring food handling, a large raised stage. North light is captured through a band of clerestorey glazing – drawing light deep within the library space to create a dynamic, enlivened “heart” of the school. This Learning Commons space is to be used for a myriad of purposes from resource space to social interaction space and from collaboration to meeting functions.