Kirby Hall: To Enhance Casady’s Campus
Mady Fong, Staff Writer
Casady students and faculty are buzzing with excitement as the ideas and plans for the new building, Kirby Hall, are released. Get ready for the new building centered around education, dining, and community experiences in 2026. Kirby Hall will be an area for not only one grade, but instead will represent all ninth through twelfth grade students.
“The plans for this building have been on the long-term master board for quite some time but accelerated when the Kirby family generously gifted Casady School 12 million dollars, which has been the largest capital donation we have ever received,” Mr. Sheldon explains.
The main objective of this building is to bring people together, create more space for the community, and have a closer dining area for high schoolers. At the moment, high school students have to walk around half the lake to reach the current dining facility in Calvert. They also have to eat late in the day due to the three different lunch periods for each division. Once Kirby Hall is built, these problems will be solved.
The building, planned to be 30,000 square feet, will contain new exciting areas such as additional classrooms, dining areas, a coffee bar, places for club meetings, more parking areas, and new sidewalks.
The coffee bar included inside will be called Laura’s Cafe. The cafe will serve all different types of coffee: cappuccinos, espressos, lattes, you name it.
The new building will be constructed east of the St. Edward Chapel. Most of the high school buildings go from north to south, which makes the Casady campus look elongated. The idea of expanding east will widen the campus.
The construction will cause other areas to be relocated, such as the Butterfly Garden and the Woolsey House. The Woolsey House is home to the Institutional Advancement Team. They will move to a temporary location in the Annex and, in the long term, reside in Griffin Hall. The Butterfly Garden will be moved to the northwest side of Kirby Hall and next to the Jaume Plensa sculpture on the north side of the Chapel.
Graduation during the years of 2025 and 2026 will take place in the Chapel Law. These two graduations will enhance experience in the Grantham-Griffing Fieldhouse, where the class of 2009 graduated during construction in the chapel.
The process of building will begin this year in December and will take roughly one and a half years to finish.
This communal facility will provide Casady students with the resources and environment they need to thrive academically and personally. The Casady Community can't wait to see the positive impacts that will unfold within the Kirby walls for our school and its future.
