By Emilie Ng
AFTER 18 months of changing the Brisbane skyline, Lourdes Hill College in Hawthorne last week officially opened and blessed its new $18 million facilities last week.
The Catholic secondary girls’ school’s building project is the largest undertaken in its 98-year history.
Growing numbers of students and the introduction of the first Year 7 students in 2015 prompted the construction of a “state-of-the-art” five-storey middle-school building, chapel and sports centre.
A Lourdes Hill College spokeswoman said the project was considered one of the largest school building constructions completed in the past five years.
The five-storey building, officially named the Bernadette Centre, houses a 470-seat auditorium, science precinct and performing arts centre.
The building also holds eight general learning classrooms designed specifically for students in Years 7 to 9, a cashless tuckshop, roof-top break-out area and administration facilities.
Directly overlooking the Brisbane River and across to New Farm Park is the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The chapel will be used for weekly Masses and will be available for hire to the wider community for weddings, with past pupils the first priority.
College principal Robyn Anderson said the new facilities marked “the dawn of a new era for Lourdes Hill”.
“Our new facilities will not only change the shape of our campus – they will be changing the shape of our girls’ education,” Ms Anderson said.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge officially blessed the new facilities on Friday, September 12.
Archbishop Coleridge said the blessing ritual confirmed that the college was “on holy ground”.
Members of the public can tour the new facilities during the college’s Open Day on Friday, October 10.
