The Upper School administration plans to make adjustments to accommodate construction on the Events Center, which begins May 9; the groundbreaking ceremony is on April 22.

So far, 35 million dollars have been either donated or pledged. Construction will last until September 2017 for the gym and until January 2018 for the performing arts center.

“The entire parking area, all of Rosenthal field, and everything except the pathway in front of the Main building, all the way over to Nichols, [will essentially be] out of bounds because all that will be all closed off for construction,” Assistant Head of School Greg Lawson said.

Because of the limited space, students and some of the faculty are encouraged to park their cars at the Blackford campus. To compensate for the inconvenience, the school plans to provide more frequent shuttle services to transport students between campuses. In addition, an on-campus van will drive back and forth during school hours to help students who are leaving campus in the middle of the day.

While on-campus parking is considered a rite-of-passage for juniors and seniors, they will lose access to it during construction. To make up for the lack of parking, the administration decided to give the current juniors their senior privileges next November instead of waiting until after the following spring break. The current seniors received their privileges Feb. 16, also earlier than usual.

Senior Amar Jain appreciated the changes, but felt that senior privileges worked better with the block schedule. Unlike the normal schedule, the block schedule had long lunch two to three times a week.

“I think it’s great, but it would be better to have senior privileges and have the block schedule, so we can have more free time to leave campus,” Amar said. “Senior privileges with the normal schedule is not that useful.”

While the Events Center was originally planned as a combined gymnasium and performing arts center, the administration decided to split the project into two separate buildings last spring.

“The three things that I can think of are better footprint, traffic safety and higher functionality,” head of school Christopher Nikoloff said. “We think it was better aesthetics as well.”

Highlights for the gymnasium will include bleachers big enough to hold all students, full boys and girls locker rooms, an improved training room, a multipurpose room for P.E. classes, office space and storage space. The gymnasium floor will be sunken below ground level, making the building even more spacious.

“What I’m excited about is our athletes having a real home, a real gym, a real locker room, [and] a real athletic training room,” Upper School Athletic Director Dan Molin said. “What it’s going to do is bring that school spirit, and more of that sense of community.”

The performing arts center will feature 500 seats, a balcony area, a large stage, boys and girls dressing rooms, classrooms, rehearsal space for orchestra, departmental office space and a lobby for art displays.

“I’m really excited for the theater because first of all, it’s going to save a lot of transportation time and we’re actually getting an amazing theater to perform the productions that we get hard work into it,” sophomore Sameep Mangat said. “I’m really excited for the choir rooms and the stage; it’s going to be amazing.”
Head of School Christopher Nikoloff presented a video tour of the Events Center during the Feb. 1 school meeting.