Holy Cross Hall at St. Edward’s University

Size: 23,000 SF
Owner: St. Edward’s University

Holy Cross Hall was originally built as a student dormitory and is one of two prominent historic buildings, built in 1903, that anchor St. Edward’s University’s hilltop campus. After decades of opportunistic repurposing and ad hoc remodeling projects, the University decided to permanently convert this iconic building to a modern office environment, while preserving and restoring its historic façade.

Because existing floor-to-floor heights were incompatible with the new program, and original framing was not designed for office occupancy, the existing floors were demolished and rebuilt. Leap!Structures performed structural engineering services to assess and analyze load bearing capacities of the historic, masonry walls and foundations, as well as to design new floor framing and structural retrofits for existing construction, where necessary. The project has been recognized by the Texas Society of Architects with a 2020 Design Award.