Students are asked to design a 37,350 SF Charter Elementary school accommodating 225 to 300 K-5 students on a 85’ X 230’ lot in West Harlem. An elementary school serves as a focal point for a community, bringing people together and including a variety of educational and social activities. A number of different publics will be served including the local residents with their diverse mix of ethnicities and cultural interests as well as the two university communities nearby.

In the last five years, New York City has seen a rise in the construction of educational facilities, accounting for more than half of all of its construction starts [by value] among public and private institutions. In 2010 alone, the School

Construction Authority built 26 new facilities, each meeting NYC Green school guidelines for sustainability, a record number in our city’s history. Privately managed and publicly financed charter schools constitute a number of these new schools and as of September 2014, there are 197 public charter schools in operation in NYC.

In addition to meeting and/or exceeding basic NYC standards of education, charter schools commonly also offer specialized and extracurricular programs in art, music, science, technology, and/or sports. A charter school is required. This chosen focus should be derived from analysis of site and program. The given school program lists a number of large spaces including cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, and library. Identifying a specialized program for the school should not eliminate any of these required spaces, but rather allow one to emerge as primary. Also define the use of an additional 3,000 SF of interior space that may make one of these spaces larger or propose additional program in support of intended focus.

The outdoor space requirement of 3,000 SF should be considered complementary to this additional square footage and should reinforce design focus. For example: a cafeteria w/cooking classrooms and community garden may cater to a school’s commitment to urban farming, an auditorium w/music rooms and outdoor event space for performing arts, a full-court gymnasium with outdoor court/field spaces for specialized sports, and a larger library with outdoor classroom for research, language, or technology education. The facilities that are required for these charter programs are also increasingly also being opened to local residents for use during weekends or after school hours.

As such, these spaces should be designed and considered as destinations for the community at large.