Hendersonville High School
Rooted in more than a century of community pride, the reimagining of Hendersonville High School transforms the historic campus into a modern, secure, and fully accessible learning environment while thoughtfully preserving iconic elements—including the landmark 1926 Stillwell Building—that embody the school’s enduring legacy and traditions.
LOCATION Hendersonville, NC
COMPLETED 2023
SIZE 175,000 SF
PHOTOGRAPHER Neil Asher
Preserving History
The team determined that the 1920’s historic Stillwell Building could be renovated and preserved to serve future generations. The design reconfigured the circulation to harness additional space, which now accommodates 24 classrooms meeting current classroom size standards. The renovated auditorium expanded the capacity from 800 to 924 seats while addressing accessibility issues; the refreshed space will continue to host both school and community events.
Design Details
The new construction connects the two existing structure: lightly touching the historic Stillwell Building via a second-story glass sky bridge (affectionately called “The Catwalk) and wrapping around the 1970’s era gymnasium by adding an auxiliary gym and lockers space below. The new two-story building contains administrative offices, science labs, band and chorus rehearsal spaces, various career and technical education labs, cafeteria, and media center.
The design solution included logistically maintaining a fully occupied high school during the duration of demolition and construction. This was achieved by repurposing existing structures as swings space within multiple construction phases.
