A pub and a school may seem like rather different kinds of institutions, and yet they hold similar positions in communities as social anchors, meeting places, and sites of shared memory and local history. The renovation of the Dan O’Connell Hotel for Fitzroy Community School works from this common ground, reinforcing the civic presence of the former pub while transforming it to accommodate a unique model of community-focused education. As the Fitzroy Community School has grown, the character of the buildings that house it have evolved with it.

The origins of the school - within a series of terrace houses in Fitzroy - were reflected in the domestic allusions of the Normanby Avenue campus (also designed by Richard Stampton Architects, in collaboration with Baracco + Wright Architects). Now, as the school expands and moves to larger premises, it has taken on a more public status. In each case, however, the character of the buildings has reflected a strong sense of being embedded in a local community.

The original pub building is a lively composition of diverse and picturesque elements. The additions made for the school extend this existing character. The result appears less like a single, unified object and more like a collage of structures - some large, others small; jovially abutting one another, not always aligning in an especially orderly fashion; often overlapping, conjoining, or otherwise bustling in together. Nevertheless, they still sit amongst one another with a sense of cohesion, drawn together by a common set of motifs - such as the recurring triangular form of their metal awnings, or the continuities within the horizontal banding of their cornices - and a shared clarity of purpose. Through modest alterations to the existing fabric, the focus of the internal life of the building turns away from the street and towards a sheltered courtyard at its centre - enclosed by a small cohort of new rooms - providing necessary privacy for students and staff. These interventions are made carefully, without undermining the strong presence that the building has long held in the streetscape.