Beehive to Beams: Afton Walsh ’03 on Building the Schnitzer Center

Catlin Gabel alumna Afton Walsh '03 leads Walsh Construction, the team building the new Schnitzer Center. As a CG parent, she's also one of the people who will watch her own kids walk through its doors. Join us on September 18 to celebrate the Schnitzer Center and “Make Your Mark” on the building — learn more about the event and RSVP.

Stand at the edge of the Schnitzer Center construction site this September, and you might catch one of the project’s massive beams swinging through the air on a crane — engineered, sustainable timber becoming the structural bones of Catlin Gabel’s newest building. 

For Afton Walsh, that’s where her two roles collide: as the leader of Walsh Construction, she’s building it, and as a Catlin Gabel parent, she’s one of the people who will watch her own kids walk through its doors.

Afton is Catlin Gabel Class of ’03, and her two boys, now in third and fourth grade, started as preschoolers in the Beehive, a building Walsh Construction once remodeled. Walsh Construction has built on Catlin Gabel’s campus for years, and growing up in the family business, she remembers being proud of her dad’s work here when she was a  kid herself. “I was excited to give that to my kids too,” she says. 

Afton didn’t set out to follow that path. An economics and business major at Cornell University, and a former tennis player turned collegiate rower, she planned to work in sports, not construction. What changed her mind was wanting a job that touched a community directly.

When Catlin Gabel ran a competitive selection process for a new athletics-centered building, it caught her attention twice over, as a builder and as a former athlete. “Sport has been very central to my life,” she says. “I was very excited to be part of that.”

Much of the new building serves athletics, which Afton sees as central to a well-rounded education that teaches lessons beyond the classroom.

“Having more capacity in the facility means more kids, regardless of ability, can participate,” she says, calling that inclusion part of “living Catlin’s ethos.” The project also includes a rebuilt dining center addressing a real day-to-day need, and an alumni center already generating excitement among graduates. Most significantly, it creates a space where the entire school community  can gather, something that doesn’t exist right now.

“I think it was the perfect time to invest in a building like this,” Afton says. “The fact that the community rallied to raise the money says this is a community committed to Catlin’s future.”

As of August 2026, construction is roughly a third complete. Framing is underway on the first two levels, and the building’s large beams are expected on-site in September. 

Afton sees the project as a collective effort across the Catlin Gabel community. "It's not just a building," she says. "There are a lot of hands that have touched it, and a lot of minds that have had to weigh in on it."

What Afton’s most looking forward to is watching the building settle into campus. “I think it’s going to transform the campus in a really positive way. A new front door,” she says. “It’s going to blend in nicely, almost like a hug around the campus. I imagine we’ll be sitting here in a year and think, ‘It’s always been here.’”

See it for yourself on Friday, September 18, at the Make Your Mark Celebration and Pep Rally where Catlin Gabel community members will gather to rally in school spirit, cheer on our soccer teams, hear from students, and ceremonially “make their mark” on the building itself. RSVP for the Schnitzer Center “Make Your Mark” celebration.