The Californer - Alten Construction completes Marin Catholic High School's convent building makeover

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KENTFIELD, Calif. - Californer -- Alten Construction (https://www.altenconstruction.com/), a full-service San Francisco Bay Area commercial construction company, recently wrapped up renovation work to the St. Anselm Hall on the campus of Marin Catholic High School (https://www.marincatholic.org/), an Archdiocesan, Catholic, co-ed college prep high school founded on the values of faith, knowledge and service.

St. Anselm Hall was originally designed as a convent to house the Sisters who taught at the school in the 1950s, but most recently, those rooms were turned into storage and office space. The school's recent growth spurred the restoration and St. Anselm Hall's complete revamp.

Alten Construction demolished the existing interior of the 17,733-square-foot, two-story building, reconfigured the structure with new spaces and classrooms and turned them over for student and staff occupancy in October 2020. St. Anselm Hall now consists of a new Counseling Center, Campus Ministry Center with a design made of mostly glass, three classrooms and the school's Principled Entrepreneurship Institute, an innovative curriculum where students use entrepreneurship and the discernment of their God-given gifts, talents and abilities to seek out their ultimate purpose and vocation.

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The commercial construction team also remodeled some existing classrooms and Poetz Theater. Other repairs included new exterior plaster and roof, a structural reboot, new lighting, plumbing, a new HVAC system and site work, overall code compliance and general building infrastructure improvements, fire sprinklers throughout St. Anselm Hall, reroofing, repainting and American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility enhancements, among others.

"I could not be happier with the completion of this game-changing project for our students and the community," said Tim Navone, president of Marin Catholic High School. "It absolutely would not have been the same without Alten Construction. Beyond the incredible quality of work and being honest and upfront at every turn, the secret sauce of Alten Construction is the trust and confidence that they are on our side and a part of our community. They approach every stage of construction as if they are building it for themselves. I look forward to working with Alten Construction again in the future."

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The refurbishment was divided into two phases so students were not displaced during construction. The first segment of construction included demolition of the offices while the students still occupied the theater and existing classrooms. Once school was out, the construction team stripped the entire building and reframed it. The existing and new classrooms were finished first and followed by the offices and hallways.

Located at 675 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Kentfield, the estimated project cost is $8.05 million. Established in 1949, the Marin Catholic student body of nearly 800 students reflects the socio-economic, cultural and ethnic diversity of the community.