Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School

Now this is an example of the type of architecture I love. Built in 1961, it is a typical example of early 60s school architecture. It is currently in its last year of use, and is being transitioned into a junior high school in the fall of 2008. I will post more pictures as I can find them, but my camera is having trouble uploading.

The main entrance to the building. Like the Middle School featured below, this entrance also features a cantilevered overhang, however this time it has a slight upward angle, to emphasize how it juts from the building.


The bus entrance to the building is located in the background, and in the foreground is the 1972 addition to the building.


Close-up on the bus entrace. The doors to the right open into Cafeteria 2. The turquoise color of the door panels was originally the same color as the brown and light blue panels, however those latter panels have faded or been repainted over time. The overhang on this entrance slightly echoes that of the main entrance, but has a more "industrial" feel to it with the bare steel framing.


Rear entrance into the stairwell of the 1972 addition.


This is the view from inside the stairwell I mentioned above. Again, the tile and chrome staircases are typical throughout the building.

And last but not least, an image of the history corridor, located in the 1972 addition. It has a more streamlined and modern look than the rest of the building, but still is very similar.

Williams Junior High School

Here are just a few pictures of the interior that I took before it was demolished. I have more but I still have to go through and organize them, so these are just starters.


This is looking down the first floor hallway from the auditorium lobby to the main lobby. This was the only floor that was still intact. The other two floors had been gutted to test for asbestos.


The gym originally had windows made of glass blocks, but over time they had been smashed from the baseball fields right outside. Right outside of view to the left is a balcony with bleachers accessible from the main lobby.

View of the auditorium from the stage. Later I'll post a picture of the amazing lights the auditorium had on the ceiling.


The lobby for the balcony of the auditorium. Originally this was a women's room, but I assume it was a lounge or something. It's hard to believe a bathroom would have that much glass. But who knows. Eventually it became the remedial speech and reading room.

From the stairs behind the stage there was this gate which allowed access to stairs up to the roof hatch.

Williams Junior High School

Although it may not be a great example of the type of modern school design I will tend to showcase, it shows the modern styling of late 1940s and early 1950s institutional buildings. On this post I'm showcasing the exterior of the building, but tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the interior as well. At a later date, when I get the time to organize all my other pictures, I'll get to demolition photos, too.


If you look behind the tree, you can see the classroom windows. Glass blocks were very popular at the time, especially in schools, since they let in diffused light, a new concept back then. The general layout of the building shows that architecture was leaning away from the tall, intimidating schools of the past and moving towards more horizontally-oriented, low-slung designs.



This entrance with its cantilevered overhang led to the auditorium lobby. Its design slightly looks like that of a movie theater to me, and doors leading from the lobby could be shut and locked so during evening performances, there was access to only the auditorium and balcony, along with restrooms.


This architect's rendering of the 1969 addition to the building shows more of the outside of the building, since the tree is not there. It also shows the flagpole that stood until 2003.

Welcome!

I started this blog because as a current high school student, who aspires to be a commercial architect one day, I usually spend more time in school paying attention to architectural details than what's actually going on in class.

From now on, I hope to not only look at some of the schools in the area that I live in, Bridgewater, MA, but also schools and campus buildings in the surrounding area and beyond. I'll probably start out slow at first, but as my pace gets quicker and I start adding more and more material, I hope you come back to my blog and enjoy it as much as I do.

Thanks!