(photo by Lee Bey)

Here’s a look—albeit a belated one—at Christ the King Jesuit College Prep school which opened this year on the city’s West Side.

The school, 5088 W. Jackson, was designed by Chicago’s John Ronan Architects. And like Ronan’s other recent works such as Gary Comer Charter high school and its neighboring Comer Youth Center, the new Christ the King is a sharp, right-angled, machine-edged building. The private school is in a tough neighborhood, as are the Comer buildings on the South Side. But instead of responding to those surroundings with blank walls or by sitting the structure w-a-a-y back from the sidewalk, Christ the King (like the Comers) is pulled right up to the property line, with windows and doors that open up onto the street. The multicolored panels on the exterior are made of‚  fiber-reinforced cement panels.

(photo by Lee Bey)

(photo by Lee Bey)

(photo by Lee Bey)

When it opened, Christ the King was the first new Catholic high school on the West Side in 85 years.