Spring has abundantly sprung at the site of Bancroft’s new campus in Mount Laurel. Emerging from the winter freeze, the campus is now lined with curbs and sidewalks making way for paving to occur in the next few weeks.
As I stepped onto site this week with a special Bancroft friend, Jack Tarditi of Conner Strong and Mayor Emeritus of Haddonfield, I could see newly hatched buds on the trees that encircle the campus. Amazing to think in only nine short months these pathways and sidewalks will fill with faculty, staff, and students hustling to get to their classrooms.
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And classrooms they are many! All 44 classrooms now have walls! Our project manager, Bill, tells me dry wall is the first step in the finishing phase of the project. It’s easy to imagine where the desks will go, where teachers will hang the smart boards and how the wide hallways will bring light and fluidity to the movement of the student’s day.
Glass curtains – literally walls of glass – are being installed – from the front of the building to the back. The open environment invites natural light and texture in, an element we purposefully incorporated into the design. Beautiful wood panel ceilings are being installed in the grand entrances, each plank weighing over 40 lbs and over 1,000 of them being placed one by one by some very strong workers.
Some big milestones to celebrate – digging for the pool is now under way, and the medical suite is framed, giving shape to treatment rooms just a little further down the hallway.
Our Lindens and Campus Residences – homes for the children and adolescents who will live on campus – are creating a neighborhood. Siding is now complete, and bedrooms, bathrooms and, oh yes, laundry rooms – where 700 loads of wash are done weekly – are evident. I can imagine the kids and our staff enjoying the larger and certainly more beautiful quarters. And that gigantic pile of dirt we’ve been hoarding will soon make way for walking paths, playgrounds and open fields for our students to enjoy. They deserve this!
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And that’s the point, right? To be able to provide our students, faculty and staff with a school, residences and a campus they feel proud of, a place created just for them
Starting late spring we will begin to share the campus with families and school districts. We will be touring groups of employees from throughout the organization to show them what’s next and where we’re going.
With the warmer months ahead, progress on the site will ramp up even more. More than 150 construction workers and trades on-site are bringing Bancroft’s Raymond & Joanne Welsh Campus in Mt. Laurel to life. Move in will be here before we know it!
