St. John's College, Santa Fe gets $25 million to renovate campus

The student center at St. John’s College in Santa Fe is on the National Register of Historic Places, the State Register of Cultural Properties, and Historic Santa Fe’s Register of Properties Worthy of Preservation. It is the centerpiece of a campus that Architectural Digest has named the “prettiest in America” and one that draws devotees of midcentury modernist designer Alexander Girard from around the world. And now the Territorial Revival masterpiece will undergo a $25 million renovation almost sixty years after its construction.

“Today, we are christening this historic building the Pritzker Student Center in honor of the unflagging support and vision of St. John’s board member Karen Pritzker,” said President Mark Roosevelt at a celebration to thank the Pritzker family for its support. Attendees included Karen Pritzker–whose son graduated from the college–Annapolis President Nora Demleitner, board chair and alum Ron Fielding, and capital campaign chair and alum Warren Spector.
Funded through a $75 million challenge grant issued by the Jay Pritzker Foundation, the Pritzker Challenge will support campus improvement on the college’s two campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Annapolis, Maryland.

Said Pritzker, “We responded to Mark Roosevelt’s call for a $75 million fund to improve both campuses’ physical infrastructure over the next ten years. It inspired us to challenge other friends and alumni of the college to raise $2 for every $1 our foundation pledges. I am delighted to announce the first major investment in this challenge, sensitively transforming a much-loved building into a 21st -century student center.”