Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., is nearing completion of a $19.5 million upgrade that includes an aquatic center and piazza.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the aquatic center at the Catholic high school will have an eight-lane competition-size pool for the high school’s swim, dive and water polo teams, officials said.
A moveable bulkhead in the pool will enable Loyola to host meets and games in faster, all-deep water, and provide an area for swimmers to warm up and cool down before and after their events.
Adjacent to the aquatic center will be a new piazza, which officials say is inspired by the St. Ignatius Piazza in front of the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome.
The piazza, which includes both indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, also will be connected to the aquatic center and will serve as a main entry for students and visitors attending athletic competitions.
The school says the piazza “will set the stage for a renaissance in arts programming that will culminate in the…design and construction of our new theater for the performing arts.”
The new theater is to be built in the second phase of Loyola's construction program.
Other campus improvements include reconfigured student drop-off and pick-up lanes designed to ease traffic congestion; an expanded parking lot; a new stormwater retention basin; and renovation of the tennis courts.
Private donations from alumni and other are paying for the campus improvements.
