KEY TAKEAWAYS: Holy Name of Jesus School completed a $10.3 million, 26,471-square-foot addition to its Uptown campus. The three-story facility includes 10 early childhood classrooms, a full-size gym, indoor running track and art and music studios. Pasted markdown The school’s capital campa ign raised $9 million, exceeding its original $5 million goal and helping fund the gymnasium. Pasted markdown Construction began in spring 2025 and was completed in summer 2026. Pasted markdown   Project description: Holy Name of Jesus School in Uptown New Orleans completed a three-story facility addition, expanding the historic 1932 campus with new spaces for academics, athletics, and the arts. The first floor houses 10 early childhood classrooms for the Little Gators and PK3 Early Childhood Classroom; the second floor is a full-size gymnasium and a concession stand; and the third floor is an elevated running track overlooking the gym, plus art and music studios. Additional upgrades include an ADA-compliant elevator and multi-floor restrooms. Address: 6325 Cromwell Place, New Orleans, 70118 (on the Loyola University campus) Owner: Holy Name of Jesus School Architect: Mathes Brierre Architects General Contractor: Ryan Gootee General Contractors LLC Square Footage: 26,471 square feet Renovation cost: $10.3 million Start date: Spring 2025 Completion date: Summer 2026 Academics, athletics, and the arts. Those three priorities drove a $10.3 million expansion at Holy Name of Jesus School, where a new three-story building addition has reshaped the historic Uptown New Orleans campus with classrooms for its youngest students, a long-awaited full-size gymnasium, an elevated indoor running track, and dedicated spaces for music and art. The 26,471-square-foot addition was completed this summer after construction began in spring 2025. Ryan Gootee General Contractors served as general contractor, with Mathes Brierre Architects leading the design. The first floor houses 10 early childhood classrooms for the Little Gators and PK3 Early Childhood Classroom, the second contains the gymnasium and a concession stand, and the third includes the running track along with art and music studios. An ADA-compliant elevator and restrooms on multiple floors were also added. For Holy Name of Jesus Principal Kirsch Williams, the project addresses needs the school had been confronting for years while serving more than 550 students in pre-K through seventh grade and facing growing demand for infant and toddler care. The new addition allows the school to expand that early childhood capacity. “Each year, we were forced to place dozens of families on a waiting list — sometimes more than 60 children — because we simply did not have enough room to meet the demand,” Williams said. “Being able to welcome all of the infants and toddlers who previously would have been placed on a waiting list was incredibly rewarding. Expanding access to our school for young families was one of our primary goals.” For generations, Holy Name students had no dedicated on-campus space for physical education classes, athletic competitions, pep rallies, and other large gatherings. The new gymnasium changes that. When fundraising for the expansion surpassed expectations — raising $9 million through the school’s “Foundations for the Future” capital campaign, compared with an original $5 million goal — the school was able to address that long-standing wish along with its early childhood needs. “When our fundraising campaign exceeded its original goal, we were able to move forward with another long-standing priority: building a gymnasium,” Williams said. “Today, our students benefit from modern learning environments, expanded early childhood classrooms, a gymnasium, an indoor running track, and spaces that support the arts and music programs.” The result is a building intended to support far more than classroom instruction. “At Holy Name, we are committed to educating the whole child,” Williams said. “That means providing opportunities for students to discover and develop their God-given gifts through academics, athletics, STEM, the fine arts, leadership, service, and countless extracurricular experiences. These additions have transformed the daily student experience and opened new opportunities for learning, creativity, wellness, and community.” Building up instead of out Finding room for all those uses was one of the project’s central design challenges. Holy Name’s historic school building dates to 1932, and the campus sits within Loyola University’s Uptown footprint, leaving little unused land for a major addition. Mathes Brierre Architects responded by stacking the program vertically rather than consuming more of the campus. “Instead of taking up any more precious land space, the new gymnasium is stacked above classroom space that must be on the first floor because these are the youngest students, ages 6 weeks to 3 years,” said Angela Morton, a principal at Mathes Brierre Architects. Because the Early Learning Center was required to remain on the first floor, the gymnasium moved to the second level, creating additional design considerations, including more exit stairs and increased sound isolation above the daycare. The running track was not initially guaranteed. Morton said it began as an optional feature, but strengthening the building’s structural diaphragm also made it possible to incorporate the track within the overall budget. Distributing the program across three floors also allowed the new building to match the height of the historic school while preserving as much outdoor space as possible, including the elementary playground and a separate play area for the early learning center. Making new construction belong on a 1932 campus For Mathes Brierre, the challenge was not simply fitting 26,000-plus square feet onto the site. It was making a distinctly modern building feel as though it belonged beside a school that has stood there for nearly a century. “Focusing on maintaining the character of the existing building and preserving the important architectural features was necessary in our design,” Morton said. The architects created what Morton calls an architectural “hyphen” between the old and new structures — a connecting element designed to physically link the buildings while allowing the addition to retain its own modern identity. “Our goal was to make the addition feel like family to the original campus,” she said. That approach included matching the existing building’s brick color palette, aligning sightlines, and drawing on the proportions of its historic windows. Elongated brick and windows without traditional mullions, however, help identify the addition as contemporary construction. The historic building’s Gothic arches also became a source of inspiration. New entry archways reference those forms, while cast-stone banding helps carry architectural details from the existing school into the addition. The addition’s location on the campus was equally deliberate. Positioning it in a rear corner preserves views of the historic stone Gothic arch at the monumental staircase. A glass connector sits just behind the arch, allowing the old facade to remain visible while creating a clear transition into the new building. That connection also became the organizing point for movement between the two buildings. “The primary connection between the historic and the new addition is at the original central monumental staircase,” Morton said. “By connecting the structures at this central hub, we established a flow and rhythm between every floor of both buildings.” Students may never consciously notice that architectural decision, she said, but that is partly the point. “It ensures that navigating between the new and old feels comfortable and intuitive,” Morton said. “It’s easy to find your way, and that makes daily life easier.” Building while school stayed in session Turning the design into reality required another balancing act: constructing a three-story building on a tight Uptown site while Holy Name of Jesus remained fully operational. “The general logistics of the neighborhood and tight site were challenges,” RGGC Project Manager Brandon Hebert said. “We really had to maximize all available space on site as well as coordinate deliveries around carpool in the mornings and in the afternoons.” Large deliveries — including pilings, structural steel and concrete — required particularly careful planning. RGGC scheduled deliveries around school traffic, held pre-installation meetings to review delivery routes, and used detail officers for traffic control when deliveries risked conflicting with morning carpool. “We were not only on an active school campus, but also in the heart of Uptown and on Loyola’s campus,” Hebert said. The constrained site also influenced the construction sequence. “Due to the structural design, we erected the entire building structure prior to pouring the first-floor slab,” Hebert said. That approach avoided repeatedly mobilizing and demobilizing the steel crane and freed valuable site space once the structural steel was erected, giving the concrete contractor more room to work. “It allowed for the project to flow better,” Hebert said. While contractors managed the construction site, Williams said the school was managing its own space crunch inside the existing campus. “One of our greatest challenges was managing continued enrollment growth while waiting for the new spaces to be completed,” she said. “As our school community expanded, our existing classrooms and shared spaces became increasingly crowded. We had to be patient and creative in maximizing every available square foot until the new building was ready.” Even after construction was complete, another logistical challenge remained: moving into the new building. Williams said approximately three-quarters of the school’s classrooms had to be relocated as part of the transition. “It was a significant logistical effort, but our faculty, staff and families worked together to make the transition successful,” she said. The school also continued refining parts of the building during construction, particularly the early childhood classrooms. “As we moved through the process, we identified adjustments and improvements that would better serve our youngest learners,” Williams said. “Mathes Brierre Architects and Ryan Gootee General Contractors were outstanding partners, working closely with us to ensure those needs were met.” Hebert said the payoff became evident long before the final punch list was complete. “The most rewarding part was seeing the excitement from the faculty and students as the progress moved from one phase to the next,” he said. ...read more read less