Ketcham Elementary School Modernization
Project Overview
Ketcham Elementary School has served Ward 8 families from its home in the Anacostia Historic District since 1908, with additions built in the 1940s and again decades later. More than a century on, the school is receiving a full modernization. The project will deliver an approximately 81,000-square-foot school facility through a combination of renovating the original historic structure and demolishing and rebuilding a portion of the existing building. The work also provides all new playgrounds, parking, and loading facilities, and the school will take part in the District's Percent for Art program, which commissions artwork for public buildings.
The design-build team for the project is Chiaramonte Construction Company and DLR Group, working for the DC Department of General Services and DC Public Schools. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved the concept design in February 2026, commending an architectural approach for the new additions that is sympathetic to the 1908 building. The fully modernized school is scheduled to reopen in summer 2028, in time for the 2028–2029 school year.
Our Role & Scope of Work
CCC is serving as the design-build contractor, responsible for preconstruction, construction management, and trade coordination in partnership with DLR Group. The scope combines two very different kinds of work on one site: the careful renovation of a historic school building and the demolition and new construction of a classroom wing and additions, including a new gymnasium. The project began in fall 2024 and has moved through concept and schematic design with the school's improvement team and the community. It is now in construction.
Community Impact
For Ward 8, the modernization means that a school with deep roots in Anacostia will keep its historic character while gaining the classrooms, play spaces, and facilities students need today. When Ketcham reopens in 2028, its students, staff, and neighbors will return to a building that honors more than a hundred years of history and is ready for the next hundred.
