Upper East Side School

Designed to be the flagship American school of an international private education corporation, the demands placed on the site were extremely high. While the site itself was only approximately 25,000 SF, it needed to accommodate a 220,000 SF program that included state of the art science labs, art studios, performance spaces, athletics facilities and modern classrooms. In addition to the strict requirements brought by the program, the building would need to compete with some of the most renowned private schools in the world only blocks away from the site.

In order to meet the program requirements, a scheme was developed to functionally utilize cellar spaces in order to accommodate the zoning area calculations and the school’s program. These spaces would be improved with direct access to sunlight through intelligent use of atria that connected to fenestration above ground.

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