Cardinal Wuerl Blesses New Athletic Field

New Turf Field Launches the Campus Enhancement Project

BETHESDA, MD – Michael Winstanley Architects and Planners (MWAP) is pleased to announce the completion of a new multipurpose field at the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart. The field was officially dedicated with the blessing by His Eminence Donald Cardinal Weurl on March 23, 2015, following an all-school mass held in the school’s gym. The new field will be named after Sacred Heart founder St. Madeleine Sophie.

The new turf field and new entrance improvements are part of a larger Campus Enhancement project. MWAP was instrumental in the design and construction of the project, serving first as the master planner for the campus and later as the Architect of Record for the field and entrance improvements project.

“After 8 years master planning and programming, it’s a real pleasure to see Stone Ridge move forward with this project.” says Leejung Hong, Team Leader for MWAP. “The new field and entrance completely transformed and modernized the 70 year old campus.”

The Bethesda campus was first inaugurated in 1947 by the Society of the Sacred Heart and was the former estate of George Ernest Hamilton, a two-term dean of Georgetown School of Law. The 35 acre parcel was fondly known as the “Stone Ridge” in the rural landscape of the day. Today, the campus is much more urban, surrounded by two of the largest government institutions in the country: the National Institutes of Health and the National Naval Medical Center.

The goal of this Campus Enhancement project is to provide a first-rate turf field for their growing athletic program. It will serve primarily Stone Ridge’s field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse programs as well as the physical education program of all Stone Ridge students. Equally important to the growth of the campus, this project will improve the main entrance to the school, flow of traffic on and off the campus with strategically placed roadways and parking areas, and it will accommodate the State Highway Administration’s changes to our neighboring roads.