Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Gymnasium

2022 National Architecture Awards: Interior Architecture – Shortlist

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Gymnasium | McBride Charles Ryan

Traditional Land Owners: Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation

The Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (PEGS) Gymnasium is the latest in a series of projects completed by McBride Charles Ryan (MCR) at the school’s senior campus. The campus development rethinks the secondary educational space as a kind of wondrous mini-city. With this latest building as the civic heart. The meeting place of the school community as well as the place where the school most visibly interacts with the larger community.

The facility is wedged between the prescribed carpark to the west and silently integrates the adjacent existing gymnasium to the east. To the north, the building frames the main school oval. And the southern facade is the main civic interface. Colonnade articulates permeability at pedestrian level and scalloped brickwork proudly greets entrants to the school. All program is contained within a single volume. The central gymnasium flanked by additional learning spaces, offices and amenities.

Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?

Having a state-of-the-art facility, such as the new gymnasium, means that the potential and possibility for our students, staff and community, in terms of their sporting endeavours, are unrestricted.
The quality and composition of the building engenders greatness by enabling those who utilise the space to see beyond ordinary. It is a place for both personal achievement and the building of teams. It is a place for us to engage with our community; to gather, to celebrate, to connect.
Nina Bilewicz
Vice Principal Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School

Practice team:

Phuong Nguyen, Project Architect
Debbie Lyn Ryan, Owner
Rob McBride, Director

Builder:

McCorkell Constructions

Construction team:

Rider Levett Bucknall, Quantity Surveyor
Florencig Smith, Building Surveyor
Pink Noise Audio, AV Consultant
Stantec, Services Engineer
Webber Design, Structural Engineer