PS 15 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, NEW YORK

a. Project Description: This $8,000,000 project updated and expanded an old and substandard inner city Elementary School. The addition to the Jackie Robinson Elementary School (PS 15) included 16,000 SF for a new auditorium, gymnasium, lobby and support spaces. Related alterations included cafeteria and classroom improvements, plus replacement of the boilers and fire alarms, and other mechanical and electrical work. A new elevator provides access for the disabled to the new addition and four floors of the existing building.

b. Special Challenges: The existing school was an ugly old block of sterile, institutional "cells and bells" drab corridors and dull classrooms. It loomed over a neighborhood of modest single story gable homes. The new architecture becomes a foil to all this drabness with a visually active interplay of shapes and color ... the shapes echoing the gable and residential forms of the neighborhood. Thus, young Elementary School children find cheerful color and a scaling down of an otherwise massive block of spaces dictated by the program.

For compatibility with the existing building, design elements of the new addition include two-story massing, matching brick exterior with similar quoins, stone base, projecting cornice and parapet wall coping. Some unique aspects and challenges of the design and construction included the following:

1) small building site and need to maintain play areas
2) accelerated design schedule to get good bids
3) involving many community representatives in the planning process
4) phased construction and alterations to suit educational program
5) incorporating student art work into permanent building display

c. Project Facts:

1) District: District 29, Springfield Gardens
2) Occupancy: February 1994
3) Grade Level: K - 5
4) Site Size: 3 Acres
5) Area: 16,000 SF New; 10,000 SF Renovated
6) Cost: $8,000,000

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