Address: 123 Blue Pool Road
Completion date: 1957
Architect: W. Szeto (司徒惠)
Owner/Developer: Maryknoll Sisters
Founded by the Maryknoll Sisters in 1927, the Maryknoll Sisters’ School moved into the present building in 1957, and was renamed Marymount Secondary School in 1983 (click here for more on the history of the Maryknoll Sisters). Designed by architect W. Szeto, the site used to sit at the top of Blue Pool Road then surrounded by green hillsides. The open V-shaped layout of the building is divided into 3 distinct units: the assembly hall with a chapel on the last floor, an administrative block in the centre, and a classroom block (see layout plan). With minimalist concrete arches in the chapel and a terra-cotta coloured belfroy in the centre, the architectural style of the school was coined to be “a modern adaptation of ecclesiastical style” by commentators at the time (see façade photos).
In order to free the interior layout of each floor from walls and columns, the entire building structure relies on the façades which are thirty feets apart. This allows the auditorium to seat 900 and the chapel 300 people (see floor plans). Presenting a modernist interpretation of gothic architecture, the façades are pierced with elongated vertical windows allowing plenty of light and ventilation. Classrooms are therefore bright, airy and spacious as well as well equipped, especially in science laboratories (see interior photos).
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Front Facade of Marymount (Courtesy Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 13, No. 4 (1958))
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Marymount seen from Tai Hang Road (Courtesy Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 13, No. 4 (1958))
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Floor Plans of the School (Courtesy Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 13, No. 4 (1958))
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Site Plan in Relation to Blue Pool Road (Courtesy Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 13, No. 4 (1958))
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Interior photos of Marymount from 1958 (Courtesy Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 13, No. 4 (1958))
