Bronx Charter School for the Arts

Narratives

Architect Narrative

The program was to design a K-6 charter school with an emphasis on the Arts. The existing factory to be converted had only one perimeter wall with windows and was very dark. The client wanted to promote the arts and community participation through a strong street presence in the urban industrial neighborhood. The school also wanted to explore educational ideas about openness and easy communication that could be encouraged by the built environment.

The challenge was to turn an old factory into a light filled, street friendly, sustainable design with open planning elements that meets the needs of children in a nurturing arts environment. The school is located in an urban industrial neighborhood It shares the street with auto repair shops, warehouses and small factories. This site is located at the end of a dead end street and encompasses two buildings; a sausage factory and a storage warehouse with a combined area of 23,700 s.f.

The floor plan of the school combines a traditional school layout with an open design. Through the utilization of multi-use shared spaces called “pods” the school is able to expand learning spaces outside of classrooms into zones that promote interaction between teachers, students and faculty. At an urban scale, music, art and dance rooms that occupy the picture-windowed facade provide visibility from street level and connect the arts to the community. The building incorporates various sustainable features and greatly exceeds the minimum standards for air changes and natural light. Filtered fresh air and north facing skylights supply the building with an ethereal aesthetic and healthy environment for children. Additionally, the polycarbonate clerestory windows reduce electric loads while letting more light in without additional heat gain, allowing the school to spend less money on heating and cooling.

The incorporation of a chromatic color palette throughout the school creates an identity with a bold palette that evokes the potential for a multitude of color combinations. Bright color glazed brick tiles, floor tiles, door and window frames, carpets and furnishings are coordinated to promote this idea of vibrancy and unity.

Educator Narrative

Our school is founded on the principle that arts education is critical to human development and learning. It is a public charter school created by a grassroots team of educators, parents and community residents that opened in the fall of 2003 (in a temporary space).

The planning process for the school’s new facility encompassed a series of inclusive participatory design meetings that guided both the selection of a school site and its design. It was important that our designers were involved in this process from the beginning. Our first discussions focused on how to transform the educational mission into a physical space. Core design principles were created to emphasize the interrelationship between design and school ethos. These principles included: a) achieve balance between order and spontaneity; b) incorporate the experience and background of the community into a coherent approach to the facility; c) provide colorful, light-filled, playful and textural experiences.

In the design development phase, the architects transformed the results of the participatory design process into a plan for a unique space to support the school’s mission. Some special outcomes of this process include: a) Placing the arts rooms “front and center” to reflect the importance of the arts to the school mission; b) including “alcoves” in numerous places to provide students with quiet yet non-isolated spaces for small group and independent work; c) building in flexibility so that space can be used differently as the schools matures and expands; d) a bright, colorful, open sense throughout the school that conveys a sense of warmth and welcome for families and students, and provides ample opportunity for the display of student work.

The new facility has had a tremendous positive impact on our ability to create an inspiring school culture and effectively implement our instructional program. The most amazing thing about our new space is the extent to which it has encouraged independence in our students. Even our kindergarteners move around the building with confidence and ownership and work independently with little supervision. This is in part possible because of the open spaces, sightlines, and accessibility of adults around the building, and in part because the building represents, very concretely, our expectations for student learning and conduct. They know, for example, that the alcoves were constructed with specific expectations about how students would use them, and they rise to the occasion. Having been a party to the construction of the building, students are aware that it was built for them, and have made it their home.

Also critical is that the arts spaces have provided teachers and students with appropriate space for authentic learning that mirrors the arts learning of professional artists. We will be making several small improvements to arts spaces this year such as installing a professional–quality floor in the dance room, separating the gallery from the visual arts studio from the gallery with a wall that will provide more display space, and soundproofing the music room.