The Blake Center
Celebrating 10 Years of Campus Transformation
On any given afternoon, you can stand on Westminster’s Historic Quad and watch ideas taking shape.
Through a wall of glass, a WCAT broadcast is underway—students adjusting lighting, testing graphics, preparing to go live. Just outside the studio, a classmate delivers a business pitch from the base of the Spanish Steps, pausing as others lean in with questions. Upstairs, a group gathers around a table, sketching and revising a design. Downstairs, a robot is being rebuilt after a test run that didn’t go quite as planned.
The work is visible. So is the thinking behind it.
The Blake Center, which opened in January 2026 across from Pressly Hall, sits at the physical and symbolic center of a campus that has been steadily transformed over the past decade. As part of Lead On: The Campaign for Westminster, new and reimagined buildings have reshaped how students experience their school day—where they gather and connect, how they share ideas, and how those ideas come to life. The Blake Center is the final capstone project realized through Lead On, and it brings the core ideals of the campaign into sharp focus.
Here, robotics takes shape beside digital design. Broadcast studios sit steps from flexible collaboration spaces. Visual and digital arts share a home with engineering and emerging technologies. Conversation becomes prototype. Imagination becomes production.
Enjoy the exploration.
WCAT Studio
The WCAT crew can be seen almost anywhere there’s action happening at Westminster. The student-led broadcasting group publishes a weekly news show, covers athletics, broadcasts live from campus events, and produces special content including alumni interviews and more. WCAT’s YouTube channel includes thousands of videos chronicling student life.
Adjacent to the studio, the WCAT team produces broadcasts from a new 1,600-square-foot editing room. The technological capabilities contained here rival college and professional production suites, including technology that will enable live studio broadcasts for the first time. The new production suite will also make group editing easier for WCAT and StudioW. The room is oversized compared to most editing rooms, intentionally leaving space for students to teach their peers.
40,000 square feet
of new space at the
heart of campus
The new facilities are already inspiring student broadcasters and filmmakers to try new storytelling techniques. Creative choices that were arduous before have now been made easier thanks to custom track lighting, a floor-to-ceiling video screen behind the broadcast desk, blackout curtains, a green screen, and moveable furniture that are all easy to operate.
Beyond the broadcast and filmmaking programs, the studio opens up possibilities for all students to learn digital storytelling, from personal narratives and historical documentaries to instructional content and interactive stories.
Visual Arts
Westminster’s Visual Arts program invites students to explore their creativity through drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and digital art. This approach helps students develop the creative mindset, artistry, and technical skills to interpret the world and voice their own experiences through art. The visual arts are woven into interdisciplinary experiences, including JanTerm offerings such as Raku Ceramics and the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Advanced Placement offerings, working with visiting artists, and arts-focused travel opportunities provide avenues for deeper exploration.
4,030 square feet of
visual arts and classroom space
Classrooms
Gallery Spaces
Equipment
Art Everywhere
Art Everywhere
Student Installations
Art Everywhere
Art Library
“Whether it’s robotics, photography, circuits, or charcoal, the work begins the same way.
You try something, it doesn’t quite work. You adjust. You try again. That rhythm—attempt, revision, persistence—is the sound of learning.”
Michael Reese
Visual Arts Teacher,
An Art Project
Visual Arts Department Chair Ben Steele, led the effort to create a collaborative "stained-glass" installation in The Blake Center. Composed of nearly 1,000 individual pieces crafted by students, faculty, staff, and broader community members, the display serves as a joyful reminder of the many distinct perspectives that make up the Westminster community.
Robotics
The WiredCats, Westminster’s robotics team, made its home in a small basement room underneath Clarkson Hall, affectionately known as the RoboDen, for well over a decade. With nonexistent storage space, no windows, and no way to separate the sounds of power tools from conversations about design strategy, the team built and programmed robots that won regional and national competitions.
Now, the team makes its home in The Blake Center’s maker spaces, giving them space to spread out, an organized tool system, whiteboards for collaborating, and enough room to practice on a course that mimics those used in competitions.
1,360 square feet
dedicated to robotics
and engineering
Every year, the WiredCats design, program, and build an industrial-sized robot, then put it to the test in local, state, and national competitions through FIRST Robotics. Having started as a hobby team in 2008, the WiredCats consistently win awards at the district and state levels and have qualified for world championships. Middle School teams have seen similar success: Having won three state championships and qualified and competed at the world championships five times since 2020.
Students learn leadership through taking responsibility for different “teams” within the team, like design, coding, driving, project management, and business.
The Historic Quad
Historic Quad
A Place to Gather
Westminster’s campus was purposely designed around a quad, inspired in part by the University of Virginia. Historically, the grassy area between Westminster’s main academic buildings has been home to important traditions like Commencement and prom, as well as the site of many of the day-to-day interactions that create community. Parts of the School’s original Quad had a steep grade, making the area difficult to navigate during community gatherings.
Historic Quad
A Place to Play
In an effort to establish a more welcoming and accommodating space in the heart of campus, 1,800 truckloads of dirt—enough to fill up 228 swimming pools—were brought in to create a level green space for the School’s quintessential gathering spot.
Historic Quad
A Place to Connect
Students, faculty, alumni, and guests once had to traverse hills and stairs to move between buildings. Now, a flatter landscape puts Pressly Hall and The Blake Center on a more even plane and expands the Quad’s role as a community space. In fact, the grassy area can now accommodate gatherings for the entire student population! The first all-school gathering and Reunion Weekend took place on the reimagined Quad in late April 2026.
Built with Shorthand