Alise O’Brien
755 S. Price
314-993-4040
"We weren’t even supposed to be here today,” said student-body president Don Soffer, standing inside John Burroughs School’s new Haertter Hall during the school’s opening assembly in August 2013. “This building was not meant to be occupied for another week. But we had to be here today, in Haertter Hall, where our community comes together every morning.”
The event marked a major milestone in an 18-month campus transformation, designed by the Lawrence Group (314-231-5700, thelawrencegroup.com), which began in May 2012. In addition to the new 730-seat venue (on par with many professional theaters), the environmentally friendly building boasts a 125-seat black-box theater, dressing rooms, a dance studio, a band room, and more.
In the months leading up to the start of the school year in 2013, a new 60,000-square-foot athletic center opened on the south side of Olin Field House, complete with a gym, a cardio room, and a weight room. Then, last November, head of school Andy Abbott welcomed students to the renovated and expanded Cissel Center and Commons—now replete with a campus store, a college-counseling office, and other amenities.
But just a few months before the project’s completion, as students admired the new Haertter Hall, Soffer noted, “We should remind ourselves that while the construction of these new buildings is remarkably significant, it is what we do inside of them that will determine the direction of the school.”
