Woodlawn High School

• Designed by: William B. Wiener and Associates, Murff O’Neal Jr., and William F. Ferrell Associates
• Design date: 1958

In 1950, a report by the George Peabody College for Teachers commissioned by the Caddo Parish School Board recommended that the board build a large high school on the south side of Shreveport to reflect the growth patterns of the city.  The physical manifestation of the report was Woodlawn High School designed by William B. Wiener Sr. (1907-1981) of William B. Wiener and Associates (with P. Murff O’Neal and William Ferrell as associates).

J. S. Clark Junior High School (1957) and Woodlawn High School (1958) each accommodate 1500 students; Woodlawn High represents a refinement of the planning strategies employed at J. S. Clark. The campus is organized using two perpendicular axes – one running east/west through the central courtyard connecting the bus drop off to the gymnasium and one running north/south through breezeways in each parallel rectangular bar.  The axes intersect in the center of the courtyard near the flagpole location.

The bar on the south side of the courtyard is clad with an aluminum-framed glazed curtainwall with enameled blue spandrels on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors overhanging the brick-clad first floor.  Classrooms are located on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors; administrative offices and a library are located on the first floor.  The single-story bar on the north side of the courtyard contains larger classrooms (art, shop, band and choir rooms, etc.) and an auditorium and cafeteria. The predominate structure on the campus is a reinforced concrete waffle slab with some steel framing inside the gymnasium and aluminum framing at the exterior covered walks.

The central courtyard on the east side originates with a covered bus drop-off.  A partial-height stack-bond brick wall visually separates the drop off from the courtyard.  The brick pattern was designed by Wiener’s nephew Sam G. Wiener Jr. (Sam IV).  In 1962, Sam IV designed a similar brick pattern on the free-standing Big Chain Cafeteria in the Shreve City Shopping Center.  The west end of the courtyard axis terminates with a shared gymnasium whose architecture is rather plane.  The gymnasium is made more remarkable through the addition of a monumental gateway placed at the entrance to the gym.  The 2-story tall gateway is constructed combining a reinforced concrete flat slab with a reinforced concrete waffle slab.