The 15,000 square foot, $6.7 million Applied Learning Center (ALC) is a space for collaborative, project and team based learning. The environment is bright, crisp and transparent. This is a contrast to the more traditional, focused classrooms in the balance of the school.

The project brief calls for a series of loosely programmed learning spaces. Of the nine learning spaces, three are focused on learning goals: visual creativity, performance and a collaborative maker space featuring 3d printers, plotters, proto-typing and fabrication equipment.

The site is a renovated former convent attached to the original Cathedral High School of Boston. The building was originally constructed in the 1920s and required extensive masonry restoration as well as careful structural planning to accommodate the uncertain bearing conditions of the soils in Boston’s South End.