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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Due to the community’s relative proximity to the 700-mile-long Cascadia Subduction Zone, a tsunami could hit the Washington coastline less than half an hour after an earthquake event. This could put the low-lying community’s elementary, middle and high schools, which were built on dunes less than 30 feet above sea level, at a severe height disadvantage. Additionally, all three schools sit on a peninsula connected to the mainland by a bridge that is likely to sustain considerable damage in the event of a major earthquake.

Based on University of Washington research that shows tsunami levels are not likely to exceed 39 feet above sea level, the elementary school’s soon-to-be-built gymnasium will rise 55 feet, offering an extra 14 feet of clearance. When completed, the structure will also be able to withstand anticipated tsunami forces and hold approximately 1,000 people on the roof, including students, faculty and Westport community members.

The Gray Harbor County Public School System serves approximately 700 students, and — as the community’s middle and high schools are also directly adjacent — the whole public school system will be able to utilize the shelter. The project was approved the community in the beginning of 2013 and will cost nearly $14 million.

The forward-thinking project has also spurred counties in other Pacific Coast states, particularly those in Washington and Oregon, to consider similar structures.

“It’s really exciting that the first tsunami vertical-evacuation refuge in the United States is going to be built here in Washington,” John Schelling, earthquake and tsunami program manager for the Washington Emergency Management Division, told the Seattle Times in October 2013. “My hope is that this really serves as a catalyst up and down the coast.”

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