Cristo Rey Jesuit High School

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To keep up with growing enrollment, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee undertook an expansion in 2019 to double the size of its existing building.

The high school sought to bring new academic, administrative and athletic spaces to a more than 100,000-square-foot addition that would allow the school to have room for 500 students from Milwaukee’s Clarke Square neighborhood.

The project was organized to be in keeping with Cristo Rey’s mission to care for the three parts of a person: the mind, body and spirit. The school’s classrooms, nodding to the mind, are in the west end of the building. Its athletic facilities, the “body” part of the project, are in the building’s southern wing. And the main entrance, its “spirit,” has a chapel, commons and media center.

Other design elements are meant to encourage learning outside the classroom. In the two-story academic wing of the building, classrooms are paired together, and each pair is given an alcove that can be used for breakout sessions or small group meetings. Each classroom, meanwhile, has a lounge.

Common areas throughout the building are designed to encourage collaboration between students and school staff. A large light-filled lobby greets students when they enter the school and a student commons is used during lunch hour. The school also has a chapel featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and a wooden screen that affords privacy for prayer without blocking natural light.

A gymnasium has a full-size basketball court with extendable bleacher seating for 500 spectators. Locker rooms and fitness rooms provide students with training and support for sports and physical education. And a soccer field lies directly east of the building, providing views of the surrounding neighborhood.