St. Augustine Preparatory Academy Phase II New Primary School & Auditorium Addition

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St. Augustine Preparatory Academy’s primary school and auditorium expansion is the latest milestone in the Christian school’s growth since it opened in 2017.

The new 123,000-square-foot building was completed in August 2023 at a cost of $49 million. It houses the school’s K4 through fifth-grade classrooms, increasing the enrollment capacity to 2,400 students. With the expansion, St. Augustine Preparatory Academy is now the largest single-campus school in Milwaukee.

The new elementary school is located across West Harrison Avenue from the current school and was designed to emphasize the learning institution’s four pillars of faith, family, academics and arts/athletics.

The new facility features flexible and efficient academic classrooms, special education spaces, a full-sized gym, a rooftop garden and an outdoor play space. There’s also a new Performing Arts Center with seating for more than 600 people.

One of the biggest challenges with the project was overcoming supply-chain issues stemming from the pandemic.

“During the bidding and budgeting of this project, commodity pricing came to an all-time high due to pandemic supply-chain issues,” said Ben Bergles, director of preconstruction services for VJS Construction Services. “Navigating that process with the overall project cost and the owner was a huge hurdle to overcome.

“Through early contractor input and engagement, we were still able to bring the project in on time and under their original budget.”

VJS served as the main contractor on the project, while Korb + Associates provided architectural services.

“This project completes the South Campus build-out, which took a blighted portion of the south side of Milwaukee to transform it to something that shapes the future leaders of our community,” Bergles said.