The new Blake Center will be open for use when students return from their Christmas Break.

When students return from Christmas Break, they can look forward to construction of the Blake Center being complete. A pathway in front of Broyles will be added, allowing Middle Schoolers to cut through campus on their way to lunch of PE. The construction being completed is a huge change for middle schoolers, allowing them to navigate through campus easier, as well as providing them a new space to learn and grow. 

Here at Westminster, we value innovation, creativity, and a commitment to excellence, and the new Blake Center will continue to uphold those values. Scheduled to be open for use when students return from Christmas break, the new building will be a place for students to create art, edit WCAT productions, write computer code, 3D print designs, learn how to handle power tools, and much more. 

Vice President of Finance and Operations Toni Boyd describes the Blake Center as “a big space, big new space, with lots of different classrooms and new age ideas.” All high school creative arts classes will be held in the Blake Center.

What makes the new building extra-exciting for Middle-Schoolers is the Blake Center’s adjacency to the Innovation Hub. This proximity will allow Middle and Upper-Schoolers to get to know each other better and share equipment, supplies, and ideas—making the Upper Patio and Chervu feel more lively and inhabited in turn. 

The Blake Center will give all Westminster arts and production classes and clubs a space to shine. Blake will provide WCAT with a permanent headquarters and give students a place to produce and edit videos and presentations for classes. Boyd says, “One of the things that makes it very unique and exciting to me is everything in that building already exists on this campus in a basement or a mechanical closet”.

One change that will directly affect middle schoolers is the relocation of the Broyles lobby art gallery, which will be moved to Blake. The existing gallery will be replaced with performing arts studios for theatre, chorus, dancing, etc.

The Blake Center will create space for a new Computer Science class, something that has had “a lot of demand” to be added to the portfolio of electives. Boyd also hinted that the “incredibly flexible” building could accommodate film study and analysis for the entire Athletic Department. 

In Boyd’s “perfect world,” she would see “students in the labs being curious, being frustrated, being perplexed, being excited, trying something new, solving problems, failing, trying again, and loving it”.