By Susannah Howe

Tucked away over the boiler room, overlooking the front of the school, is the sunny office of Winsor’s new Director of Campus Planning, John Doherty. Though all Winsor girls know about the new building, not many know about Mr. Doherty. He started work this summer and since then has been handling plans for the new building. Said Mr. Doherty, “I oversee what goes on on a day-to-day basis with the facility… I’m also very much involved in construction as far as the documentation, what goes on for permitting, what goes on in communications from the general contractor, the architects, the engineers. I go through the drawings to find things that we may want to change.” The job description may seem vague, but it is an important one. Mr. Doherty is one of Winsor’s main advocates in the planning process, and his concerns range from the environmental to the practical to the financial. “I make suggestions, or recommendations… I’m always thinking of it from Winsor’s point of view, as opposed to just getting it done. As important as just getting it done is, [the building] needs to work with the school, they need to flow together.”

Figuring out how he could help integrate the new building into the existing school required getting up close and personal with the current facilities. When Mr. Doherty first arrived at Winsor in July, he said, “there were fewer people here, so I got to crawl all through the school and learn all the little nooks and crannies of the building and facilities and grounds.” This process helped him get to know the school better; he also tries to meet as many people as he can in order to better understand how to meet the needs of the Winsor community.
Mr. Doherty brings significant experience to the job. Having attended Beaver Country Day School and Governor’s Academy, he is familiar with independent schools. He has been involved in construction, he said, “since I was probably 8 years old.” He started out visiting construction sites with his father, who managed construction projects as an owner’s representative, then started working on construction jobs to pay for engineering school and worked his way up from manual laborer to manager. He has managed his own construction company with a focus on biotech facilities and has worked for other construction firms. With his personal background and extensive experience in all levels of the construction business, Mr. Doherty is well qualified to oversee the building of Winsor’s Center for Performing Arts and Wellness.

It is easy to forget how much hard work is and will be required behind the scenes to bring Winsor its new building; most Winsor girls’ main construction-related concern is where the soccer team will practice while the CPAW is being built. But although Mr. Doherty’s job may not seem glamorous, he’s the one who will ensure that construction runs smoothly and that the new building will be safe, functional, and integrated into the rest of the school. And he has already started becoming a part of the Winsor community: he said, “I had lots of fun at Under the Lights!”