After many years of visioning, planning, fundraising and almost a year of construction, the spaces and views imagined for Cathedral’s first new building in 52 years are finally being realized!
The new education building will address all of the facility limitations currently felt with science, engineering and visual arts, offering larger classrooms that will accommodate physical distancing. It will also include a chapel, a community room and collaboration spaces on both the first and second floors. Its design encourages hands-on learning, creativity and critical thinking among our students and faculty, which will position our students for even greater success in college and/or future careers, preparing them for a bright future in an ever-changing economic
We look forward to celebrating our grand opening with the community! In the meantime, we hope you will enjoy this virtual sneak peek video, created by Anderson Hughs Productions.
*To keep our students, staff and faculty safe we are limiting enrollment to keep class sizes small. There’s still room in each grade for new students for the 2020-2021 school year, but we expect we will reach capacity in some grades soon. If you are considering a Cathedral education, don’t delay! Apply TODAY!
Construction Update
This Thursday, Cathedral Board Member and Building Committee Member Fr. Tom Knoblach ’79 laid the last brick! This momentus occasion was captured on video by Anderson Hughs Productions and can be watched by clicking the image above.
Now, in the final month of construction, the view of the mighty Mississippi River from the community room can be seen, allowing us to embrace what has always sat just outside our back door for the first time.
Walls have been opened up to establish the physical connections of stairs, ramps, elevators and hallways connecting the 1968 North Gym, this new academic building, the 1938 Center Building and the Holy Angels Performing Arts Center with ADA compliant accessibility.
The exterior, made up of an attractive multicolor brick that pulls the different brick colors of the North Gym, Center Building and South Building together, is complimented with the same exquisite granite around the front door that was used on the 1957 South Builidng and North Gym entrances. Best of all, large windows bring the outside in with tremendous amounts of natural light.
The 2020 academic building will become the primary entrance to Cathedral. Immediately upon entering, you will find a beautiful chapel with stained glass windows repurchased from Holy Spirit Church that had been pulled from the Holy Angels Church during the 1993 rennovation when the Holy Angels Performing Arts Center was created.
Academic classrooms in the new building focus on much needed upgrades to our learning spaces for the sciences, visual arts, and applied engineering, with study spaces throughout for student and staff
collaboration.
Finally, a beautiful community room with a concessions area connects to the north gym athletic space – the last new building built on campus in 1967 – which will allow for public use of the new academic building for sporting events and other activities hosted on the Cathedral campus.
McGough and ATS&R have been great partners, and with diligence have kept this project moving through unforeseen challenges. The fact that they have been able to stay on target with their goal to complete construction within a year is nothing short of extraordinary, and we thank all of the project team members that have made this possible.
Fundraising Update
There are many who have made this dream a reality. Friends and supporters of Cathedral have given or pledged an incredible $15,609,103 towards our new academic building to date. To all who have supported this project, we give our unending thanks and gratitude.
But – there is work yet to do.
The overall price of the project has gone up 7% over the original budget – not bad given some of the challenges and necessary changes this project has faced. We have 11% of our project goal ($1,930,983) left to raise. A big number to be sure, but within reach.
See your name on our donor wall of appreciation upon entering the new academic building!
Now is your chance – if you’ve been waiting to give, wait no more! If Cathedral is or has been important to you, we need your help today. Be among the 1173 who have contributed to this historic project and leave a lasting legacy. Every donor, no matter the size of your gift, will be featured on our donor wall.
Cathedral’s future is full of promise and possibility.
THANK YOU for supporting future generations of Crusaders with a gift TODAY!