St. Francis School selected (fer) studio to design a new facility to house a gymnasium and performing arts center and incorporate the school’s environmental and educational values.  (fer) studio provided a design approach that offers an indoor/outdoor theatre, multi-purpose indoor/outdoor athletics and integrated instructional use.  It also surpasses the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, uses sustainable materials, eco-conscious construction, integrated ventilation and zero run-off site design.

The new facility integrates academic curricula into the built environment by added student monitoring of humidity levels in the gym.  In temperate fall and spring months when humidity is often in the ‘sweet spot’, the east wall of the gym will open up to a canopied courtyard bridging the indoor facility to the outdoor facility and the campus beyond.  An open and monitored connection to the outdoors is coupled with a roof exhaust system, providing a convective cooling effect that expands the comfort zone and further reduces loads on the heating and cooling.  Natural diffused light is provided by peeling up the bright red metal walls and allowing indirect light to enter the gym evenly and provide natural luminance during daylight hours with very limited power usage for artificial lighting. 

The new facility was designed to serve not only the K-8 grades on the campus, but also the high school in Louisville as a practice facility.  The complex integrates a Kentucky Collegiate Regulation Basketball court Gymnasium and Multipurpose Event Center, a canopied outdoor gym and play area, a concessions area for all campus athletic sports, facilities to serve the adjacent field hockey and track and field outdoor facilities, offices, and a Parent/Teacher lounge internet lounge area. 

The complex and the existing campus is geared toward indoor/outdoor use of space with classroom instruction often occurring outdoors on the 46 acre campus.  At the core of the campus, the barn red Athletic Facility forms the nucleus of an indoor/outdoor environment where education, sustainability, and physical fitness are reinforced.  Its surfaces fold and unfold to define the interior spaces and control natural light.