Garinger High School
(ca. 1959)
The Modernist style Garinger High School campus is notable for its association with two influential 20th-century Charlotteans: a trailblazing educator and a widely regarded Modernist architect.
1100 Eastway Drive, Charlotte, NC 28205
Garinger High School is notable both for its namesake and the architect who designed the Modernist styled building. A native of Mt. Vernon, Missouri, and a graduate of the University of Missouri, Dr. Elmer H. Garinger (1891-1982) came to Charlotte in 1921 as the city’s first junior high school principal. As the head of Charlotte Central High School in the 1940s, he was instrumental in the establishment of Charlotte College, the predecessor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His contributions were commemorated with the naming of the Garinger building on the UNC-Charlotte campus, designed by Charlotte architect A. G. Odell, Jr. (1913-1988) who also designed Garinger High School. Even more significantly, as superintendent of Charlotte City Schools in 1949, Garinger led the cause for racial integration of the city’s public schools.
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As a proponent of Modernist architecture himself, Garinger’s namesake high school was designed in the Modernist style by Charlotte’s most recognized Modernist architect. The original design of the 62.5 acre campus was the handiwork of Odell, widely credited for reshaping and modernizing Charlotte’s urban landscape and built environment. The Concord, North Carolina, native studied civil engineering at Duke University and architecture at Cornell University. He later matriculated at the L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and apprenticed with the New York firm of Harrison & Foulihoux. Odell moved to Charlotte in 1939 to open up a one-man office that would eventually grow into one of the largest and most influential architectural firms in North Carolina. Although Garinger High School was the largest project he undertook for Charlotte Public Schools, Odell designed several other buildings for the school system, including the Second Ward High School Gymnasium, Double Oaks Elementary School, and Wilson Junior High School. He is perhaps best known for designing Ovens Auditorium and the original Charlotte Coliseum, the world’s largest unsupported free-span dome as of its 1955 opening. Odell is also known for designing much of the original Research Triangle Institute campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park as well as the iconic Blue Cross Blue Shield building in Chapel Hill. In 1965, he became the first national president from North Carolina for the American Institute of Architects.
Classes started at the new Garinger High School on September 1, 1959, with a student body composed primarily of former Central High School students. The 1977 addition of a new library building into what had originally been a spacious central courtyard significantly altered the original campus design, blocking views of the original classroom wings and other campus structures and presenting a stark and minimalist contrast to the multiple-angle forms, textured surfaces, and colored wall panels of the original campus buildings. A major renovation was undertaken in 2004 without awareness of the school’s eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, resulting in unfortunate substantial changes to the school’s auditorium and front entrance. However, several elements of the campus have maintained their essential integrity, including three original classroom buildings, the gymnasium, and the overall park-like setting of the campus.