Notre Dame High School, located in north Calgary, is a 1,000-student capacity first phase of an ultimate school design for 1,500 students. Situated on a shared site with the major north regional recreation centre, Cardel Place (now Vivo), both buildings were designed collaboratively with the intent of compatible and shared use.
GGA was hired again in 2012 to develop two separate additions and renovations to the school. The initial school lacked true CTS space due to budget constraints at the time. The first phase involved a modernization of the culinary arts spaces and the adjacent interior spaces that were impacted by this work as well as the addition of a woodshop, robotics lab, welding shop and automotive lab. This phase also included the addition of a 150-capacity music classroom. The second phase included an addition of a new academic wing to expand the student capacity. The addition follows the inspiration of the initial construction where major building program is reflected in the aesthetic of the architecture. In that sense, the more industrial shops using an industrial aesthetic of shed roofs to allow natural light from the north side to brighten the work spaces. The music room is designed to reflect subtle acoustic details in the form and interior finishes. A simple yet elegant acoustic solution is detailed in the floating wood panels depicting a cross and the abstracted acoustic wall panels of the rosettes from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.