SI Celebrates Completion of West Campus Expansion Project
St. Ignatius College Preparatory’s West Campus Expansion Project, dedicated at the Oct. 13 President’s Cabinet Reception, brought together 600 of the school’s supporters for a black-tie dinner, tour and multimedia presentation.
The event also brought together a disparate cast of characters, from Harry Potter to SI founder Anthony Maraschi, S.J.
The new $12 million project includes the Columbus Piazza, named for Monica Devereux and her husband, Christopher Columbus, the filmmaker responsible for the first two Harry Potter films, Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire.
The piazza provides students with stunning views of the Pacific and a place to congregate at recess, during lunch and after school.
Columbus, who had one child graduate from SI and who has another enrolled, decided to donate to the school for several reasons. “High schools often take a back seat to universities,” said Columbus, “but they shape the future for so many kids. I rarely have seen a high school as strong or as committed to each student as SI is.”
Columbus also likened SI to Harry Potter’s Hogwart’s School “in that it cares for and pays so much attention to all its students. With other schools the size of SI, certain kids can get lost. I can’t imagine that happening here.”
The new piazza sits atop the Mary Ann and Jack Gibbons Hall of Music, which houses a state-of-the-art practice and recital space for SI’s many singing groups and handbell choir.
Jack Gibbons ’37 donated the funds for this building to honor his mother, Charlotte McFarland, who had been orphaned in infancy and adopted by an aunt who was both staunchly anti-clerical and opposed to the formal education of women. In the late 1800s, Charlotte contacted SI founder Anthony Maraschi, S.J., who agree to teach her to read.
“She had to hide her books from her aunt, who would burn them upon discovery,” said Gibbons. “But both Fr. Maraschi and my mother were persistent. She was an extremely bright woman who, later in life, would read the Wall Street Journal and the Racing Form every day. She thought the sun rose and set on Fr. Maraschi.”
SI Development Director Joe Vollert ’84 believes the juxtaposition of the piazza and the choral room serves as a poetic symbol for the students. “The new rests atop the foundation of the old,” he noted. “Mr. Columbus, who is new to the SI community, helped create a piazza that sits atop a facility named for a man whose connections to SI goes back to our founder.”
The Gibbons Hall of Music holds the Doris Duke Wall Choral Room, named for the late wife of Dr. C. Allen Wall ’46. The room’s suspended ceiling and tiles provide for optimum acoustics for SI’s Chamber Singers and Mixed Chorus.
The West Campus Expansion Project also includes new classrooms (named for the Class of 1977, the Herbst Foundation and Donald White ’42), the Dana Family Batting Center (which holds two indoor, underground batting cages modeled after the ones at AT&T Park), the Jane and James Ryan ’51 Weight Room, and a new concession stand named for the late Steven J. Cannata ’66.
Other donors include Ernest and Jenny Go and Terrence V. McGuire ’45, for whom, respectively, the choral director’s and weight room offices are named.
The West Campus project is part of the school’s five-year “Genesis V: New Horizons” campaign, which also includes a new retreat center and playing fields and a new goal for the scholarship endowment.
“The new campus facilities provide for our burgeoning programs in academics, athletics and fine arts,” added Vollert. “They also change the atmosphere of the school by opening up the west side for students and for events.”
CSDA Architects, led by Randy DeVoto ’68, designed the buildings with curved walls and barrel rooflines and included a decorative arch, a departure from the rectilinear design of the main campus. “The architects somehow managed to make the new structure different enough while seamlessly wedding it to the existing campus,” added Vollert.
“Devcon Construction expertly built the project into the last undeveloped portion of SI’s 11-acre campus,” he noted. “The project came in on time and under budget thanks to the collaboration between Devcon and CSDA. The payoff comes from seeing so many students enjoying the piazza, working out in the weight room and taking batting practice after school. It’s also an absolute joy hearing our students sing in the Wall Choral Room. It’s a testament both to their talent and to the generosity of so many in our community.”