JACKSON HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, NY, NY

a. Project Description: This new elementary school is located in a nationally designated historic district on an extremely small site. The pre-K through fifth grade facility has a gross area of about 100,000 square feet and includes twenty-six classrooms, library, art, auditorium, gymnasium, cafeteria complex, and various administrative, community and custodial spaces. It exemplifies the difficulty of finding sites for new schools in New York City. An existing religious community center was torn down in order to provide the site.

b. Special Challenges: Responding to the extremely small site, two full stories, including the two-story-high gym, were placed under ground, below street level. Many solutions were studied for this unusual set of space problems. The solution constructed has a large rooftop playground for the youngest children and an attractive protected exterior entry space at grade where children can play and congregate before and after school.

c. Architectural sensitivity to this beautiful existing National Historic District, became part of our program" early in the project. The new architecture borrows in a creative way from the many towers and forms in the adjacent buildings and thus is visually comfortable in its context. The entire Jackson Heights community and the Landmarks Commission are very pleased with the result.

d. Project Facts:

1) Location: Jackson Heights, Queens, New York
2) Occupancy: August 2000
3) Grade Levels: Pre-K through fifth grade
4) Site Size: 22,000 square feet at grade
5) Gross Area: 100,000 square feet
6) Construction Cost: $27,000,000
7) Total Project Cost: $32,000,000
8) General: The project was finished on time and under the budget and has received critical acclaim.

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