Portfolio: St. Theresa Education Centre

The St. Theresa Education Centre will be the first constructed phase of a masterplan designed to revitalize the parish campus. The new building will serve this large parish in the Archdiocese of Houston in several ways. It will house a new elementary school for grades Kindergarten through Sixth grade, offices for the parish staff, and offices for catechetical education for children and adults. The two-story brick and limestone building is inspired by St. Mary’s Seminary and Ralph Adams Cram’s inventive buildings at Rice University.

The main entry is placed near the entrance to the church, and is articulated by a grand façade with rusticated brick work and arches, limestone and marble details, and inscriptions dedicating the school to St. Theresa of Lisieux. A Doric colonnade connects the main entry with the porte cochere . The main entry leads to a two-story lobby supplied with natural light from a skylight, off of which are parish offices and the school library. The lobby and halls are appointed with inscriptions and iconography of different saints for each classroom. Classrooms for Kindergarten through Second grade are found on the ground floor, and the second floor holds classrooms for Third through Sixth grade and a spacious library with mahogany bookcases surrounding the reading room.

A second phase of the project will add classrooms for pre-school and middle school, as well as classrooms for science, art, and music and additional office space. A gymnasium and refectory already exist on site.