Demolition is finished at 23-10 43rd Avenue, the site of a six-story school building for PS508Q in Long Island City, Queens. Designed by ESKW/Architects for the New York City School Construction Authority (NYC SCA), the 90,000-square-foot structure will feature classrooms and facilities for 550 students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school will also offer a city-wide district 75 special education program for students with significant disabilities. The 0.49-acre property is located within the Special Long Island City Mixed-Use District and is bounded by 43rd Avenue to the north, 24th Street to the east, and 23rd Street to the west.
The site sits cleared to street level and partially covered in masonry rubble from the demolition process. Excavation has yet to begin.
23-10 43rd Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
23-10 43rd Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
23-10 43rd Avenue. Photo by Michael Young.
The renderings preview a rectangular massing rising to a sixth-floor setback, followed by a fenced-in rooftop play area next to a tall bulkhead with mechanical equipment. The ground floor will feature a recessed entrance along 43rd Avenue flanked by a gently sweeping wall clad in glass and dark green masonry. The main façade will be composed of earth-toned brick with angular shading intended to resemble fabric rippling in the breeze from passing subway trains on the adjacent elevated track. The contrasting green brick used at the ground floor will slope up to the parapet at the northwest corner.
23-10 43rd Avenue. Rendering courtesy of ESKW/Architects.
A second playground will sit beneath a canopy at the base of the rear southern elevation.
23-10 43rd Avenue. Rendering courtesy of ESKW/Architects.
The property was formerly occupied by a five-story office building, as seen in the below Google Street View image from before its demolition.
23-10 43rd Avenue. Image via Google Maps.
The school will also feature a cafeteria, a flexible gym/auditorium space, a library, and spaces for music and art.
The nearest subways from the ground-up development are the E and F trains at the Court Square–23rd Street station to the south, which provides a connection to the G and 7 trains at the elevated Court Square station.
A construction timeline for PS508Q at 23-10 43rd Avenue has yet to be announced.
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Rooftop play areas have become very common in new NYC school construction. Makes sense.
That’s about all you can do if you want to build a 90k sq ft school on a 20k sq ft site.
With the growth in Long Island City add two more floors.
That becomes really tricky because it creates a dependency on elevators and escalators to move the kids around for both day to day stuff and emergencies. We all know how well City of NY run escalators and elevators tend to go out of service for months at a time.
I wonder if there have been any office to school conversions, I realize there are special issues in building a school, but the former 5 story office building on this site looked to be a candidate..