Brody Bazirgan ’25

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Moran Hall sits at the edge of the Strake Jesuit campus underutilized, the school’s administration offices having moved from that building to Loyola Hall. However, as part of the implementation of the Vision 2020 Strategic Plan, Moran Hall is scheduled for a major renovation. 

In addition to changes to Moran, which currently houses the College Counseling and Theology Departments, the plan also upgrades HVAC, plumbing, and electricity for the Jesuit housing as well as continuing to implement a Chill Water System for all other Strake Jesuit buildings to replace the current AC.

In Moran, the newly designed first floor will be utilized for college counselors and students alike. The addition of eight new offices and the transformation of the former dean’s office into a conference room will double the capacity of the old college counseling conference facility. The only change to the outside of the building will be a fully glass “curtain wall,” which will open up the natural light into the student center on the first floor as well as into the classrooms on the second floor. The south side of the building offers a great view of the campus that is currently under-appreciated and rarely seen. The southside gets the most light and has perfect views of green space, the library, the theater, and numerous other parts of the Strake Jesuit campus. 

The furniture in the building will be similar to that of Loyola, but not the color of it. “On our campus we tend to have a lot of green stuff,” said Mr. Fahy, Assistant Principal for Student Affairs. In this new building there will be blue and red alongside the green and white to demonstrate Strake Jesuit beyond this campus. “We like the idea that college counseling is a Strake Jesuit thing. It’s us, but it’s the part of us that’s most outward looking,” said Mr. Fahy, “where we take our students, us, and say now get out there.”  This new building will be the perfect place for students to learn about life beyond Strake Jesuit while still keeping their Men for Others ideals with them.

The second floor will also be extensively renovated. This floor will feature a new Theology Department suite identical to the ones used by the other departments in Loyola Hall. This floor will also feature three brand-new classrooms, two of which will be the typical strake Jesuit classroom while the latter will be a discussion-based classroom with soft seating and will be about three quarters the size of a normal classroom.

Split between these offices and the classrooms will be bookshelves to make a new spot for the now-overflowing Michael Melancon Theological Library. This theology library is vital to the department. “It’s a big part of how the theology department defines itself,” Mr Fahy told me. The new additions and remodeling of this building will go a long way in helping us find God as well as accommodating our ever-growing Theology department.

The building will also be receiving facilities and finish upgrades such as laminated flooring and changes to increase the natural light. Greenery around the building will be increased as well as inside. As for the walls besides the curtain wall, no changes will be made to the outside. In order to make Moran feel larger the low ceilings will be ripped out and replaced with a higher one with ceiling baffles. The reason for this is that the high ceiling without baffles would lead to a muffled sound but the soft baffles allow for sound to travel better through the building. “A good but large project for the school,” Mr Fahy said.

This project is set to be completed around the middle of the school year, 2023-2024.