Maria Garriga, Register Staff - NEW HAVEN - Lithe, aluminum figurines dance on a frieze that borders the new Beecher School at 100 Jewell St.

Beecher, the 24th school to be completed under the $1.5 billion city school renovation project, will open April 23.
 
The $40 million renovation by Svigals and Partners of New Haven preserved the brick exterior of the 1913 school, with its conventional windows and classrooms, as a wing of the new school.

"It has a lot of character and it’s very inviting," said Principal Kathy M. Russell, whose 330 students have been in the former West Hill School at 311 Valley St. during Beecher’s 18-month renovation and expansion.

Besides the 1913 wing, the rest of the about 86,000 square feet of the school is a confection of glass panels that angle subtly in and out, giving the school asymmetrical lines that house conventional spaces.

Barry Svigals, the architect, drew the Matisse-like dancing figures himself and said the off-center lines and slightly irregular angles are all intended to help children see that school is fun.

The irregular panes of glass "dance with the light. The building is moving," he said. The design radiates energy and brims with playfulness.

Svigals has also designed the John S. Martinez School, noted for its rooftop that resembles a set of head sails on ocean-skimming sloops, and the Edgewood Magnet School, the first to be renovated as part of the school construction program.

Sails on the Beecher roof are less dramatic than those at Martinez; they give each room the feel of a main room with a bay area. Classrooms in the new section of the school, which will house younger grades, will also feature colorful porticos that act as small foyers to each class.

Massive glass walls on the gymnasium, media center and cafeteria/auditorium at Beecher open it to the light and the neighborhood, and to views of West Rock’s trap rock ridge. Yet children sitting in classrooms will be able to see over the quiet homes and a cemetery at the lower levels, giving them a sense of being part of the neighborhood. Just as important, Svigals said, all that glass allows the community to see inside the school.

Project manager Claude Watt said the school intends to reach out to the community. "Schools (buildings) are no longer just used by schools, they are used by the community. Schools in New Haven are heavily utilized," he said.

Watt said that the Board of Education had purchased several adjacent lots and knocked down the buildings to expand the existing 2-acre lot into 4 acres with playgrounds, a field and a basketball court, all in response to requests by community members.

For Watt, the school’s most compelling feature is an atrium with a 50-foot ceiling and partitioned glass walls. The area features an exhibition space and will have a hanging mobile of clouds made of translucent pieces of plastic by Tim Prentice, a Cornwall sculptor.

In another nod to the arts, Beecher will feature a caryatid, a statue that serves as an architectural support, beneath the overhang that shelters the main entrance on Jewell. Although change has transformed Beecher, devotees of the original school can still see its facade on Blake Street. The bus drop-off has been placed on Onyx Street, a less trafficked street.

Beecher previously served students in kindergarten through fifth grade, but will be expanded to serve students in prekindergarten to eighth grade. Next year, there will be 400 students as the school gradually adds grades.