In November of 2019 Saint-Luc purchased the St. Luke General Hospital building in Arnaudville in hopes of creating a physical space of its own, the Saint-Luc French Immersion and Cultural Campus. They aimed to build on what they established over the course of 12 years, as well as draw inspiration from the French immersion structure at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, Canada. With renovation begun, the Saint-Luc Campus was on its way to be a versatile center for French immersion, education, and cultural exchanges, offering spaces for learning, collaboration, and traditional crafts.

Arnaudville

Arnaudville is a small rural community with many local French speakers. The remoteness of this agricultural town located at the crossing of two bayous in South Louisiana makes it a perfect place for French immersion education for adults. This perfect backdrop also includes assets that add to the value of the experience such as a National Paddle Trail on Bayou Teche with a trailhead, a local brewery and artist collaboratives.

About half of the land in the town core is owned by either governments or institutions serving the greater community. This includes St-Luc’s campus and the community center. Saint Francis Regis Catholic Church owns much of the land that can connect St-Luc’s students and faculty back to the center of town and serves as a key component for creating pedestrian connections through the cemetery.

Data Collection

Arnaudville’s existing Deux Bayous Cultural District Plan served as a jumping off point for the St-Luc campus plan by categorizing the cultural assets in the Arnaudville community.

An online survey was sent to three different groups of users, the Learner, the Teacher and the Teacher-Learner in aims to gather valuable input to inform the design process. By collecting feedback on preferences, needs, and expectations, the survey helps ensure that the master plan aligns with the actual requirements and desires of the groups it will serve. Two stakeholder meetings were held where the design team received feedback from St-Luc board members and community stakeholders. This feedback, along with survey results, were incorporated into the final Campus Master Plan vision document.

15-Year Campus Plan, Two Campuses in One

Because the historic hospital is too large to serve the current needs for the St-Luc organization, yet could one day be needed as St-Luc grows, the idea emerged that the campus could be designed to accommodate both the short term needs of St-Luc and serve for another need in the community: housing. This will not only solve multiple challenges but also bring with it much needed financing in order to advance the St-Luc campus. This two-campuses-in-one idea serves as the main framework for the campus master plan. The master plan calls for St-Luc to partner with a multi-family developer to rehabilitate the historic hospital structure and add a new building while St-Luc constructs smaller scale lodging and learning space components on the remaining land. This allows the campus to grow with the organization rather than having to expend the needed capital to rehabilitate the original structure.

The campus begins to take shape because of the ability to share spaces and share costs between St-Luc and the multi-family housing component. Classrooms, parking and other amenities can be shared, making it more feasible for financing the project as well as more amenities for both components.

Program Elements on Campus

The campus plan aims to weave both the St-Luc needed program spaces with the housing and town-owned assets. The program buildings and outdoor spaces are layered on top of the circulation to create a cohesive campus that is easily understood by visitors and users.

Public Face of Campus

The public face of the campus includes a drop-off area and a sense of arrival as one crosses from the parking and stormwater management features into the campus quad.

A new gallery space and welcome center displays St-Luc cultural products and student work and doubles as a library for the Francophone community.

This area also includes an outdoor seating area for campus students, teachers, and visitors. A Petanque court allows for on-campus recreation and provides students and teachers an outdoor venue to extend campus programming.

Historic St. Luke Hospital Building

The historic St. Luke hospital building is to be rehabilitated and adaptively reused as longer-term multifamily residences, with the option of being converted into shorter term stays for students and faculty as the St-Luc program grows.

New Multi-Family Apartment Building

In order to create an economy of scale for the apartments a new two-story apartment building is placed on the angled offshoot circulation from the parking at the street corner. The new building frames a flexible open space that will serve longer-term residents and offer a place to gather.

Cabins

A grouping of new cabins is nestled in the rear corner of the campus, providing a camp-like environment for students. The faculty residences also include a “salon” or living area for students in the evenings. Smaller gathering areas are featured between the cabins, giving guests more intimate outdoor spaces to relax, study, or congregate between formal instruction.

Ateliers

Space for three atelier buildings is along both the pedestrian spine and Olive Street. This buffers the residents and separates the active area from the residential areas. These spaces accommodate specialized programming and include outdoor space to extend learning opportunities beyond the buildings.

Athletic Facilities

New Athletic facilities are proposed on the Town-owned property behind the existing community center. These facilities will serve not only visitors and residents of St-Luc, but all residents and visitors of Arnaudville. There is also ample space for a future expansion of the community center to provide more classroom or meeting spaces for both St-Luc and the broader community. An indoor sport court gym along with a tennis or basketball court and a padel court can also be incorporated with more parking towards Guidroz Street.

Pedestrian Connections

Because the St-Luc program is based on integration with community assets the campus master plan sees it necessary to look beyond the campus property lines. The mappings of these community assets and potential collaborators reveals the need for developing more pedestrian pathways in the form of midblock pedestrian allées, more shaded sidewalks and even the addition of a pedestrian bridge across Bayou Fusilier.

Environmentally Responsible Campus

The campus includes a network of stormwater management features to deal with water from storm events on-site. This helps prevent downstream flooding and provides campus visitors with dynamic outdoor spaces. Primary features include a large rain garden at the campus entrance and a series of planted swales that treat runoff from the parking areas and buildings and slow down stormwater to manage it on-site.

Native plants are used throughout the site, helping to establish a sense of place within the campus and making connections to local ecologies. These plants also offer an opportunity for campus visitors to engage with the cultural history of these plants, learning their French names and studying their historical uses by Louisiana residents.

The Saint-Luc campus will be an ideal place for continuing its offerings of French immersion experiences, educational classes, business meetings, and cultural exchanges.

Click here to learn more at Saint-Luc’s website.