Share this post

The ever-changing concrete and steel canvas that is New York City is always home to ambitious construction projects. The ongoing project at 250 East 57th Street – one of the largest public-private initiatives to build public schools in the city’s history – is living proof. “We were intrigued by the potential of becoming the redeveloper of this 1.5-acre site for a number of reasons,” says David Lowenfeld, executive vice president at The World-Wide Group.

“We thought it was interesting to see an institution like the city’s school system trying to monetize assets on its balance sheet, specifically the undeveloped air rights on the site. We saw this as an opportunity to make an important contribution to the urban fabric of the city, as well.”

Evolutionary Impact

The project is designed to have a significant impact on the neighborhood around 250 East 57th Street, providing state-of-the-art school facilities, a grocery store, additional retail space and residential units. The project is being built to the New York City School Construction Authority green school guidelines. The centerpiece of the first phase of the project is the educational component as well as the development of the facility for the building’s anchor retail tenant, Whole Foods Market. 

Altogether, the mixed-use development totals 925,000 square feet. The New York City Educational Construc­tion Fund selected The World-Wide Group to oversee creation of the new High School of Art & Design and the Public School 59 (PS59) Beekman Hill International School, which were de­signed by Skidmore Owings & Merr­ill. Con­struction began in April 2010, and 2,100 students will move into the two schools in 2012. 

“Whole Foods is now doing their build-out and should be open by the summer,” Lowenfeld explains. “Interior finishing work is going on and the building is topped out and enclosed, and we will be able to deliver the finished schools to the school system for occupancy in September.”

Construction of the schools and Whole Foods Market will help facilitate this East Side neighborhood’s continued growth, capitalizing on the unrealized value of the site’s real estate. 

The second phase of the project will also greatly contribute to the neighborhood’s growth, the company says, as it will include an additional 43,000 square feet of retail and a 55-story residential tower. Construction of that phase of the project will get underway after the High School of Art & Design leaves its existing facility on 2nd Avenue.

The World-Wide Group and Skid­more, Owings & Merrill were the perfect partners for this project because of their extensive experience in large undertakings. World-Wide’s real estate development experience goes back more than half-a-century, and it has worked on billions of dollars’ worth of urban development projects. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is a top-class global architecture, urban planning, interior design and engineering firm. 

Different Approach

The two schools at 250 East 57th Street are the definition of 21st-century learning environments in a large urban setting. PS59’s exterior wall consists of composite metal panels and glass. It will feature a sixth floor outdoor play area and a library with ample natural light. The High School of Art & Design in­cludes a 20-foot-high covered outdoor play area and a 250-seat gymnasium bath­ed in natural light. The two schools will share a 500-seat auditorium.

“Most schools use brick and block for the façade; we used a metal panel system on a structural metal stud,” says Mike Gordon, director of construction at World-Wide. “That allowed us to save money and also allowed for some articulation on the façade that would have otherwise been much more difficult to accomplish. The stud and sheeting system goes in relatively quickly, which gets the building enclosed months ahead of completion of the actual façade.”

One of the complex pieces of this project was the fact that it included building a new PS59 facility twice. That’s because students needed a place to learn after the old PS59 on the site was demolished and before the new PS59 at 250 East 57th Street was finished. The interim PS59 is located in a former nurses’ residence on East 63rd Street. It was the first school constructed according to New York City Green School Guidelines and includes a rooftop gym and outdoor play space. When the new school is ready in the fall, the interim PS59 will be taken over by the city’s school system.

“Relocating the primary school was a major challenge because we had to find the site, build it out and move the students before we could move forward with the first phase of the project,” Lowenfeld says. “To unlock the value of the real estate here, we needed to create a footprint where we could build the two new schools. That necessitated development of the temporary facility where PS59 could continue operating. It was incumbent on us to identify a site and get it designed and built.”

The site at 250 East 57th street did come with some challenges. For in­stance, there was tough rock underneath the site. The weather last winter made it difficult to keep the project on schedule, and logistics were problematic, too.

“With logistics, we located all material loading on 56th, and put the hoist inbound of the property line to get hoisting and loading off of the street,” Gordon says. “It was challenging, but not uncommon for construction in New York.”  

As the project nears completion of phase one, all parties involved in the pro­ject can now look ahead to the fall, when students, teachers and administrators at PS59 and the High School of Art & Design begin to call the facility home. 

“The city has taken bold steps to en­sure that all of its assets are at work on this site by developing the air rights, and World-Wide learned a great deal about how to work with institutional clients to help them unlock the value of their assets while creating facilities that suit their needs,” Lowenfeld says.

“In September, we will have moved the students in and begun phase two of the project,” he adds. “The experience of working on this project and our successful track record puts us in good position to work on additional similar projects in the future.”