Project Details
- Project Name
- Mary Potter Academy
- Location
-
Oxford ,North Carolina
- Architect
- Evoke Studio Architecture
- Client/Owner
- The Mary Potter Alumni Club
- Project Types
- Cultural
- Project Scope
- Renovation/Remodel
- Size
- 9,600 sq. feet
- Shared by
- Madeleine D'Angelo
- Project Status
- On the Boards/In Progress
- Cost
- $3,500,000
This project was recognized with a Citation in the 68th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards and featured in the March 2021 issue of ARCHITECT.
"This is a very compact project with the potential to be transformational by adding a few interventions to reinforce a sense of place and create a new cultural center." —Juror Daimian Hines, AIA, founder, Hines Architecture + Design
From 1888 to the early 1970s, the Mary Potter Academy was a boarding school in Oxford, N.C., that nurtured the early development of Black leaders. Now, Durham, N.C.–based Evoke Studio Architecture is reimagining the academy’s remaining buildings in the downtown’s historic district as a complex of flexible programmed spaces that can serve the local community and extend the campus’s legacy of service into the future.
The Mary Potter Academy was formerly one of the largest landowners in downtown Oxford, but just three of its buildings remain: the founder’s residence, a museum since 2004; a 9,600-square-foot brick-and-wood-framed industrial arts building, which has been vacant since the 1990s; and a similarly scaled gymnasium structure. The industrial arts and gymnasium structures were originally constructed by the students, so it was important to the designers that new interventions honor the craft-oriented legacy these buildings embody.
Evoke Studio Architecture’s renovation proposal transforms the industrial arts building into a two-story conference center, with a variety of meeting rooms, a gallery space, and offices. The single-story gymnasium becomes a cultural center with a multipurpose space under its restored trusses. The design uses a common language of architectural intervention, inserting carefully crafted canopies and additions that feature dark gray aluminum-composite panels with wood insets and glass juxtaposed against the existing brick masonry envelopes.
Cantilevered canopies will shelter a new entrance and a wide glass vestibule to welcome visitors to the complex. The interiors’ simple palette of wood, glass, gypsum board, and terrazzo allows the exposed original masonry walls and wood trusses to provide a legacy-filled framework for the new activities.
Between the repurposed buildings, an open-air pavilion will replace an aging wood-framed structure for the Oxford Farmers Market. A new steel-and-wood canopy that forms the reconceived market relates to additional exterior interventions across the site.
Project Credits
Project: Mary Potter School Shop Restoration
Location: Oxford, N.C.
Client: The National Mary Potter Club
Design Architect: Evoke Studio | Architecture, Durham, N.C. · Teri Canada, AIA (managing principal); Billy Askey, AIA, Edwin Harris, AIA (design principals); Parker Yingling, Assoc. AIA (designer)
Structural Engineer: MMSA
MEP/Civil Engineer: Dewberry
Size: 9,600 square feet
Cost: $3.5 million
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
The Mary Potter Academy was founded in Oxford, North Carolina by Dr. George Shaw in 1888 as a boarding school for African American children. The school’s original goal was to uplift the black race. The school was the epicenter for the black community during the Jim Crow and segregation periods, providing a nurturing, communal environment, generating a strong black middle class, and serving as the incubator for many black leaders. Desegregation of Oxford schools began in 1970, crippling this pillar of the black community by pulling resources, teachers, funding, and students to newly integrated schools. In the wake of this change, the buildings on the historic campus were forced to close their doors and be sold off.
By the early 21st century, only three buildings remained in various stages of shuttered disrepair: Dr. Shaw’s original residence (which was renovated in 2004), the former Industrial Arts Building, and the former Gymnasium. In the context of the school’s powerful legacy and the city’s complicated racial history, the new Mary Potter Cultural Complex thrusts new life into the Oxford community while simultaneously promoting the Academy’s memory and mission. The revitalized complex will welcome multiple generations and races to gather, discuss, collaborate, engage, and celebrate. Rather than approaching each building as separate entities with duplicating uses, the design embraces the collective, distributing programs capable of accommodating a variety of groups and activities.
The multi-level Industrial Arts building, now on the North Carolina Historic Registry as a contributing building within a historic district, becomes a conference center with spaces for smaller meetings and offices for start-ups. A new stair unites the building’s previously disconnected floors while allowing daylight from above to penetrate the partially submerged lower level. The former Gym transforms into the Mary E. Shaw Cultural Center, capable of hosting large events. An entry vestibule at the Gym building provides an accessible entry while acting as a vitrine to showcase the Academy’s history. Finally, the farmers’ market serves as the new campus’ hub, helping connect the separated buildings.an accessible entry while acting as a vitrine to showcase the Academy’s history. Finally, the farmers’ market serves as the new campus’ hub, helping connect the separated buildings.
Type of Construction
The students, educators, and alumni of Mary Potter funded and built the campus’ buildings during the School’s history. Both the Industrial Arts and Gym buildings are approximately 90-year old, wood-framed structures with multi-wythe brick exterior walls. The project will remove the previous alterations that changed the experience and appearance of both buildings while also ensuring the buildings can age gracefully. Both buildings will have their windows opened back up and suspended ceilings removed to highlight original roof trusses. The material palette is purposefully restrained to complement and honor the authenticity of the brick and wood original to each structure. New additions like the exterior canopies at the buildings and farmers’ market feature dark-grey ACM with wood insets, while monochromatic interior finishes once again put the spotlight on original materials. The Industrial Arts building’s sagging floor structure will be replaced with a new steel structure, and its leaking roof will be replaced in kind with metal Victorian shingles. The American bond exterior walls will be repointed and repaired.
