Our Lady's Roman Catholic High School, Dowanfield Road, Cumbernauld

Our Lady's Roman Catholic High School was constructed between 1962 and 1964 by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, with a further extension added in 1970, also by the same practice. The school is a four-storey building of rectangular plan, situated on a sloping site. It features a square roof block and a slightly projecting third floor. The building’s structure is a metal frame, faced with exposed concrete and metal cladding incorporating bitumen. A concrete walkway leads to the first-floor entrance, angled to the building and supported on pilotis, creating an overhang above the ground floor. The fenestration is predominantly horizontal.

The east elevation, the main entrance front, has a pair of timber doors with glazed panels located to the right of centre at first floor level. The remaining openings are irregular. There are three glazed concrete panels, a double glazing band with a regular astragal pattern spanning the ground and first floors, and a lean-to conservatory at ground floor level to the right. The second floor has a continuous double glazing band with regularly-spaced astragals, while the third floor has a continuous glazing band with irregularly-placed astragals. Metal facing is located between the glazing bands.

The interior layout includes a gymnasium on a lower ground floor, an assembly hall, dining room, classrooms, and offices on the ground floor, classrooms and stores on the first floor, and specialised classrooms on the second floor.

The windows are steel-inset, timber-framed, and vertical pivoting. The roof is flat, with timber joists, boarded decking and a bituminous felt covering.

Janitor’s houses, designed en suite, were built in 1962 and subsequently adapted for use as a nursery in 2000. Built to the rear of rising ground, they are accessed on two levels and consist of a two-storey, rectangular block with a flat roof running north-south, positioned west of the main site and accessed by a gate. The west-facing elevation has alternating doors and recessed openings, with a continuous band of windows at first floor level. Access to the higher ground is via wider doorways with flanking bands of windows.

A technical block, also en suite and from 1962, is a three-storey structure with a partial basement, built on the sloping ground to the west of the main school. It has a shallow U-plan with a bowed projection. The second floor is jettied and metal-clad. Windows are banded on each floor. The south-facing end, housing a metalwork classroom, is bowed. A central link at ground floor serves as a circulation hall and contains a woodwork classroom, boys' and staff lavatories and stores.