Former Headmaster Jay Stroud won’t be roaming the halls of Tabor Academy this year, but a new renovation project will ensure that his service is  remembered.

The entry to the Academic Center is being revamped and renamed the Stroud Academic Center, in honor of the recently retired headmaster.

“It’s a rethinking of the main entrance to the school,” said new headmaster John Quirk. “The entryway will present the school in a more interesting academic light.”

Quirk said originally, the center may not have been intended as the school’s welcoming point, but it became so over time.

“It’s a very high traffic area. In a community of 600 plus people, my guess is that 400 of them are going to walk through that door every day,” he said.

The school’s Board of Trustees initiated the project as a way to honor Stroud’s contributions to Tabor, and to improve the welcoming feel of the building.

The modifications, designed by Saltonstall Architects, will include a new facade on the building’s entrance and a more open, modern lobby for receiving students and visitors.

“It’s a very welcoming, inviting and accessible place,” said Quirk. “The architecture will just highlight that.”

Other spaces in the building are also getting a face-lift.

“There will be lots of programmatic benefits to an already good building,” said Quirk.

The language department’s office and classrooms will be expanded and updated. The Carlson Room, adjacent to the lobby, will feature historical items from the school.

The renovations are scheduled to be completed before the school reopens in September.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to christen the building’s new name is still in the works, but Quirk said he is looking forward to using the “brick and mortar” representation of Stroud’s work.

“Here is this guy who’s done incredibly significant, positive work on behalf of the school for 24 years,” he said. “It will make me happy to walk through those doors and have him on my mind. I think that will be true of anyone who knew him.”