Engineering Design of Pärnu Old Town Primary School Under Way

11.01.2014

On November 30, 2009 Amhold Ltd and Pärnu Old Town Primary School entered into contract to carry out a reconstruction project of the school building under heritage conservation. We will perform the architectural, interior design, structural, water supply and sewerage part of the building, also ventilation and heating, electrical and weak current parts and control engineering of the building.

The design and construction of the historical building of Pärnu Old Town Primary School started in 1901 and the building was completed in 1902. The author of the design was August Reinberg with Baltic German origin, who was a member of Riga Architects Association. Designing and construction was performed simultaneously and many alterations were made during designing, for example, the building was decorated with five mouldings instead of one that was originally planned. Increase in price of the building didn’t allow building an expensive stone roof, therefore a board roof characteristic to Pärnu was built, which was painted so it would look like a stone roof from a distance. With a correct maintenance the board roof last nearly half a century. The rest of the building was built of stones and had a steam (classrooms) and wood (living quarters) heating.

The gym at 19 Pühavaimu st. is also part of the school. It is located in the heritage conservation area of Pärnu Old Town and resort and is entered as an architectural monument as well. In 1906 the wooden gym building at the corner of Nikolai and Lõuna street burned down. On the fifth day after the accident the insurance company paid off the insurance money and in a sitting of the City Government two days later it was decided to establish a gym to the location of a gunpowder cellar that has lost its function. At the same time another problem important to the city needed a solution – to place the city archive in a more commodious and fireproof room. The new repository had to be a stone building built on the gunpowder cellar and be as an architectural compound with the school building completed in 1902.

In a sitting of the City Government held on April 30, two sketch projects were introduced for establishment of a common building. The more expensive and grandiose was chosen. The complete design was completed two months later, which also included a requirement to use the most expensive and high-quality materials. The time-limit for constructing the building was two and a half months. Since the foundation of the gunpowder cellar standing on wooden rafts was decayed, the foundation was deepened and the rafts reinforced according to the expert opinion of a specialist invited from Riga and, therefore, the construction of the building was delayed. As the beginning of 1900 was an era of general electrifying, the new gym was also supplied with electricity. The building was accepted and approved on October 7, 1907 by a committee of four members.

According to plans the work project of Pärnu School should be completed by May of 2010.

Pärnu Old Town Primary School Building. 1902. Architect A. Reinberg