Mother Mary Lange Catholic School
Mother Mary Lange Catholic School is a new 65,000 SF, three-story, 520-student pre-K through eighth grade school located in Baltimore City. It is the first Catholic school to be built by the Archdiocese in the City in over six decades. The modern facility is located on a prominent, underutilized site that is part of the western gateway to the City’s downtown business core and will help improve the urban density and community access to education.
The concept for Mother Mary Lange began in 2015 following the unrest resulting from the death of Freddie Gray. Archbishop William E. Lori recognized the unrest as not only a reaction to Gray’s death, but also to the community’s continued marginalization. The school addresses these inequalities by providing a renewed space for education within the community. The building’s main entrance is located on Martin Luther King Boulevard with a secondary off West Lexington Street, allowing for off-hour, community usage of the gymnasium, cafeteria, and athletic field as needed. The school’s location will leverage established university, corporate, institutional, and nonprofit partnerships to ensure superior academic program and extended day and enrichment initiatives.
Throughout design and construction, JMT Architecture worked closely with the contractor to complete a successful project at a fast pace, despite working through difficult conditions. In March 2020, as the COVID outbreak began in the United States, construction began to shut down in several states. Luckily for this project, Maryland remained open for construction and the project schedule was able to accelerate by four months as subcontractors brought in manpower from nearby, shutdown states.
Mother Mary Lange boasts two classrooms per grade, a digital media center, and STEM suite with a science lab, makerspace, and robotics center. The regulation-sized gymnasium includes a performance stage and enough seating for the entire school community, and the athletic field outside can host soccer and lacrosse games.
Community engagement was essential to the successful design of the school, and it was imperative they provide guidance and buy-in as the site was developed. The school blends in with the fabric of the neighborhood, seamlessly tying the neighborhood rowhomes to the campus of University of Maryland, Baltimore across the street. The interior of the school utilizes bright pops of color and custom murals that celebrate the community’s identity and history.
