Conte West Hills Magnet School

The design connects the Italianate past of the Wooster Square neighborhood to a 1961 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill “temples in a field” school. One building addition, which provides art classrooms and a new entrance, links the existing classroom building and auditorium and provides an interior connection between them. A second single story addition to the south of the existing building provides classrooms, administration offices, and the front door to the school.

All existing spaces and facilities were renovated, including the gymnasium, indoor swimming pool, cafeteria, auditorium, science laboratories, library, and classrooms. The modest additions enabled New Haven Schools to bring the school into conformity with its new K-8 model and brought dignity and a sense of place to a school that had been alien to its urban context.