St Mary's College Mercy House

St. Mary’s College, Ipswich is a blossoming school community which is fast out-growing its existing facilities. In anticipation of the introduction of year 7 onto this campus, the school was keen to take advantage of the existing Heritage Convent which graces the highest part of the site. The Mercy Convent itself was sadly in need of repair and restoration after decades of ad hoc additions and ill-considered interventions.

The largely cellular arrangement of the Mercy Convent lends itself to the accommodation of offices and the like and hence is a logical candidate for the bulk of administration and staff studies. The existing administration building (The Doro Building) then underwent some internal rearrangement to suit its new function as the Pastoral Care and Student Services Building.

External works were also undertaken between these two buildings to resolve some of the on-going parking and vehicular issues. A proper site entry was demarcated, not only to properly indicate the entry to the site, but to clearly define the divisions between vehicular and pedestrian access and circulation.