The School Building
In 2002, the Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation launched an effort to build a new facility to better serve the youth of the Phillips neighborhood – The Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center. Supporters recognized a synergy between the goals of Cristo Rey and the Colin Powell Center, and they decided to raise funds to provide a building that would serve both organizations.
The major challenge we have in the twenty-first century is to make sure that every child is pointed in the right direction and given the character and competence they need to be successful in life. It begins in places like this where children come and see adults who are caring about them, and believe in them, and who give them what they need to be successful in life.”
The school building
Designed as a “non-residential condominium” jointly owned by Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, roughly one third of the space in the building is dedicated to each partner. The remaining third is shared between the two operations. The Cristo Rey space was designed to provide a variety of learning environments to support a greater variety of learning styles, and was personalized and organized to facilitate the Cristo Rey project-based learning model.
Completed in June 2007, the building is a state-of-the-art educational and recreational facility designed and constructed by Ryan Companies. The principal educational facility consultant was the internationally recognized school design firm Fielding-Nair International.