Long Live Loyola Hall
Summer at Saint Ignatius High School is in full swing. Another successful Summer Enrichment Program (SEP), REACHing MAGIS Summer Achievement program and Arrupe Neighborhood Partnership Summer Camp have wrapped up, and the campus is buzzing with construction activity as the second and third floor renovations of Loyola Hall are well underway.
You may remember in 2022, the first floor of Loyola Hall was refurbished and The Companions Center for Faith that Does Justice was completed. The Companions Center provides collaborative spaces for students, faculty and staff to learn, plan, prepare, and implement programs related to faith, service and justice. The suite of spaces allows vision-led cross-disciplinary activities between Campus Ministry, Theology, and Christian Action Team programs.
Through the generosity of Jeanette and Jack Walton's ’68 lead gift to the project, Saint Ignatius could move forward with renovating the rest of Loyola Hall this summer. The renovation of Loyola Hall, while physically transformative for the 160-year-old building, is not just a makeover. The refresh designs are rooted in the very fabric of the school’s strategic plan, Vision ’30. A modern approach to education and the way students collaborate and learn is at the heart of the design for new space, providing a blueprint for future campus transformations.
Turner Construction wasted no time mobilizing their operations in Loyola Hall on Saturday, May 23, 2023, to begin the 12-week renovation project of the second and third floors. Demolition work is now complete revealing original brick columns and 15 ft tall ceilings. Windows have been replaced on both floors, providing the look of the original St. Mary School building and enhanced sustainability advantages over the most recent (1980's vintage) single-pane windows. (View more photos on Facebook.) 
Gone is the maze of walls and hard-to-find classrooms of the 2nd floor that were part of the last renovation of Loyola Hall in the early 1980’s. Open corridors, collaborative spaces and more flexible classroom configurations will be the new experience of the Math department as they move into the newly renovated floors of Loyola Hall. As part of a larger master plan to align teaching and learning disciplines, Math is moving to Loyola Hall to coincide with the Clavius Science Center on the west side of campus, and Theology and History, which were housed on the 2nd and 3rd floors of Loyola Hall, will be moving across the Mall into the Main Building for this coming school year.
Electrical and network infrastructure are now being installed, with classroom wall repair and new wall construction nearly complete. Soon new ceilings, fixtures, wall treatments and carpeting will be installed.
Recently, Joe Stinolis, Project Manager from Turner Construction, gave us an overview of the progress to date and a peek into what is still to come this summer on the project. You can view the full video here.
The work on Loyola will be completed by August 12 and ready for the teachers to move into their classrooms the week of August 13. Classes will begin on August 21. Additional back-to-school info can be found on our website. We look forward to the reaction of our teachers and students as they get back to campus and experience this refreshed look at the school’s oldest structure dating back to the 1860’s.