Bishop Nevins Academy
December 2000
by Freda Parker
How do you chose a slogan for an extremely important school expansion program? According to folks at St. Martha Catholic School, part of the Bishop Nevins Academy, Diocese of Venice in Sarasota, Florida, you think about what it is you want to accomplish. They did, and they came up with: Building our children's future, today!
The Bishop Nevins Academy is working toward that goal with an expansion program calling for the building of seven Monolithic Domes, in three construction phases, during the next three years.
Architect Rafael Moreu, president and owner of Moreu & Associates, B.A., Maitland, Florida, described those phases and the domes. Moreu said, "Each of the seven domes will be on a stem wall. In the first phase, we'll build three. Dome A, 128 feet in diameter, will have two floors, with administration on the first level, a chapel in the center, and classrooms on the upper level. Dome B, 140 feet in diameter, will have classrooms and Dome E, 124 feet in diameter, will include the cafeteria, kitchen, labs and lecture rooms."
During Phase II, Dome F, 124 feet in diameter, will be built with classrooms for students with special needs.
Domes C, D and G, two with diameters of 124 feet for classrooms and one with a diameter of 148 feet as a gymnasium, should see completion during Phase III.
Moreu, who began his architectural career in 1971 and established his firm in 1980, works with several Catholic dioceses (district administered by a bishop) in Florida, primarily on the design of churches and schools. He said, "But this is my first Monolithic Dome project.'
Not only is it a first for Moreu. It's a first for any Catholic diocese in Florida.
Associate Director of the (Venice Diocese) Building Commission Ray Haddad described how it all came about. "Father Fausto Stampiglia, pastor and administrator of St. Martha School, vacations in Arizona and became friends with Rick Crandall," Haddad said. "Rick showed him the domes in Arizona. Consequently, when Fr. Fausto came back he presented these ideas to me and to the parish and to the school building committee."
Haddad, a civil engineer with expertise in structural engineering and construction, said, "We took a hard look at it - a very hard look! At first, I was not too happy with the (dome) concept. I was worried about its applicability to Florida's weather conditions. Both Arizona and Florida are hot, but one is dry while the other is wet. We had to be sure before we experimented with something we knew nothing about."
So the research process began, including an Arizona visit made by Haddad, the school principal and others during which they inspected four Monolithic Dome school sites. Haddad said, "We looked at the existing structures and made notes, and, frankly, I had to resolve some major concerns."
In his report to the building committee, Haddad addressed each of those concerns. He said, "I wanted to go with stem walls. That was a must in my book. I was concerned about air-handling quality inside the domes, since they're such tight structures. Acoustics were another concern. They can be terrible in a dome, but you can solve that with the right acoustical material. Form and space inside the dome was the final issue, but we learned we could do modifications to suit ourselves. Dome tech nology is flexible, making that possible."
Haddad said that Rick Crandall supplied the information they needed and convinced them that a Monolithic Dome is more economical space. "That was a swaying point, the deciding factor to go Monolithic," he said.
Currently, St. Martha School has 380 students, but school officials anticipate an enrollment of 800 with the expansion.
Reaction to the Monolithic Domes has been mixed. "Many people just didn't know what to think" Haddad said. "But we're on the coast so hurricanes are a real threat. The domes gained a lot more acceptance when folks learned of their strength. We will use them as disaster shelters for the school and the community."
To further the education process, Haddad ordered a virtual reality program that presented their school expansion project in three-dimensions. He said, "We sent our plans to an outside, consulting virtual reality firm. They put the plans on a computer that gave us a scale model. We needed to do that because nine times out of ten people have a hard time reading plans. That program helped immensely."
This past May, Bishop Nevins Academy held a ground breaking ceremony on the 17-acre sight for its new Monolithic Dome facility that just about everyone connected with St. Martha School attended - administrators, students, their parents and teachers. Now they're all excitedly awaiting their first Airform inflation.
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