NEW YORK—General contracting firm EW Howell Construction Group has completed the expansion of one K-8 private school and the buildout from the ground up of a second, both in Manhattan. The new 30,000-square-foot Harlem Academy is located in Upper Manhattan, and the revitalized Village Community School is situated in the West Village.

Prior to the construction of its permanent campus, Harlem Academy operated out of three rented storefronts for over two decades. EW Howell worked to execute the design plans of architect Perkins Eastman so that the new facility could effectively double the school’s overall enrollment. In addition to classrooms, Harlem Academy’s building features a cafeteria, entry commons, library and large outdoor playing area.

“Due to space constraints, a usual project in this market would consist of the renovation of an existing school building or an adaptive re-use of an existing property into a school building,” said EW Howell Vice President Dominic Paparo, who supervised the project. “Harlem Academy was a unique project because of the size of the project site, which allowed for a brand-new building and a ground-level play yard, a rare opportunity we don’t often see for private schools in Manhattan.”

Nel Daws, a senior associate at Perkins Eastman, called the library and reading terrace “the heart” of Harlem Academy, “visually connected to the entrance lobby, café and multi-purpose room by the adjacent double-height student commons.”

“The façade design respects the Harlem neighborhood,” said Daws. “The masonry façade is both contextual and contemporary. A sleek steel entrance canopy provides a welcoming entrance from the street.”

In addition to the Harlem Academy project, EW Howell served as construction manager for renovating and adding on to the Village Community School. As designed by Marvel Architects, the five-level, 30,000-square-foot addition necessitated below-grade excavation to make room for the new gymnasium. The school’s updated features entail a library, rooftop play yard and specialized classrooms in such disciplines as woodshop.

A “curtain wall” connects the old and new portions of the school—and also serves secondarily by fashioning a showy entrance for the redesigned Village Community School.

EW Howell was founded in 1891 and has since become one of the leading general contracting and construction management firms in New York, with offices both in Midtown and on Long Island. The firm’s previous renovation work at New York’s private schools entails jobs at the Dalton School, Brearley School, Spence School and the Hewitt School. In addition to education, the firm is known for being busy in such other construction sectors as retail, arts, institutional and healthcare.

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NEW YORK CITY— The addition of an 83,500-square-foot building to the Brearley School in Manhattan has been completed.

The Upper East Side K-12 independent school, which, until now, had resided in its original purpose-built building since 1929. The architect was KPMB Architects and EW Howell served as construction manager.

The new facility is located on a 100-by-75-foot lot and contains 12 floors with various activity spaces stacked upon each other – from art and science classrooms to a 600-plus-seat auditorium – with interactive and sustainable elements incorporated throughout the building, including a rooftop garden with a rainwater collection system. The cost of the project has not been disclosed.

The project has been designed from the inside-out, based on programmatic needs, and from the outside-in, resulting in an academically dynamic facility held together architecturally with a masonry wrapper that unifies these disparate program elements while addressing the character of the local neighborhood.

The new facility blends into the design aesthetic of the Upper East Side with exterior brick masonry, yet still defines its own identity with refined, Roman format iron-spot brick for texture. The brick not only responds to the client’s wish to “not be just another all-glass building,” but also responds to energy improvements required of future buildings.

KPMB strategically located windows to maximize daylight hours of rooms, while still limiting excessive solar gains, with some classrooms achieving as high as 90% daylight autonomy. The school gymnasium incorporates Solera diffusing glass to better light the space while controlling unwanted glares from reaching athletes and spectators.

Elements of the facility are integrated into student education, such as a visible, natural ventilation system that students are involved in engaging and that allows for cooling supply in warmer seasons without the use of mechanical air conditioning. On the rooftop terrace, science students have access to an experimental garden with a storm water collection apparatus that connects with the run-off of higher roofs to benefit the greenery.

A gathering space for performances and events, the school’s auditorium incorporates a flexible floor that converts from raked seating for up to 600, to a flat floor accommodating 222 for school galas – all with the help of four independent floor platforms that automatically move vertically based on preference. For maximum acoustic effect, nine-wood wall and ceiling panels surround the audience while hiding technical theater equipment.

KPMB will also soon be renovating the existing Brearley facility so it’s consistent with this new building.

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