The new McShane STEM Center, which is currently under construction at Warren De La Salle Collegiate High School, received its official blessing Thursday with Father Brian Meldrum leading the ceremony Thursday.

The event began with a ceremony held in the De La Salle gym that included prayers and remarks from various school officials, students and alumni including Steve McShane, whose multimillion dollar gift to the school in 2023 enabled the school to move forward with the STEM center project.

“As we celebrate the groundbreaking and blessing of the McShane STEM Center, we are not just building a facility, we are laying the foundation for the future of education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” said McShane. “These are the fields that shape our world.”

McShane, a 1961 De La Salle graduate, is the CEO of Midtronics, Inc., the global market leader in battery testers and diagnostic chargers for traditional electrical systems, as well as the service equipment for electric vehicle batteries.

The new STEM center is being built in the middle of the existing school in the area previously occupied by the library. A mezzanine level is being added to house more classrooms and the lower level is being transformed into two separate open-area instructional rooms for engineering and robotics and physiology and anatomy respectively.

Last week a giant crane was on site dropping 13 steel beams into place that will hold the upper level structure. Once that level is built, sealed and waterproofed, the current roof of the existing first floor will be removed and reconstructed.

“It is a very unusual approach to construction,” said De La Salle Operations Director Joe Gerardi. “The demo still has to be done.”

The STEM center will feature some technology previously unavailable to high school students such as an anatomage table that will allow students to dissect animals and humans digitally.

“It is really an incredible piece of equipment that allows students to do virtual dissections,” Gerardi said. “This is a piece of equipment that just a few years ago would have only been found in a medical school.”

The STEM center will also have a computer lab, classrooms for introductory classes, a spot for physics experiments, and a room for flight simulation.

The building will be ADA compliant and will include a lift that can be used by disabled people to move from the first to the second floor of the center.

While it might be the aspiring engineers who are most excited about the addition of the STEM center, De La Salle officials and alumni say that all students will likely use some kind of technology in their careers and having the STEM center available gives them an opportunity to learn.

“The STEM center is more than just a facility for students who are passionate about STEM subjects; it is a resource for every student at De La Salle,” McShane said. “Technology touches all aspects of life no matter what career you choose.”

The STEM center is expected to be completed by the end of the current school year in 2025.