Capital Campaign - $5 Million Challenge

Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School, Bronx, NY

Background Information, Architecture, Functionality and Creative Design Information

FACTS AT A GLANCE:

Address: 647 Elton Avenue, Bronx, NY
Size: 69,000 square feet, five stories with a cellar
Student body: 440 in grades 9-12 (a 10% increase from the current 395 students)
Architects: ESKW/Architects and IMC Architecture
Developer: Pillar Property Management
Educational facilities: 24 regular classrooms, two specialty science classrooms, an art studio, a library, a media production studio, and a green screen broadcast studio
Athletic facilities: 8,000-square-foot basketball court with telescopic seating for nearly 400, a weight room, and a dance room and a physical therapy training room

The Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School (EMNRBS) will be the first of its kind in the nation: a purpose-built, specialized high school with an academic curriculum entirely designed around basketball and the many career paths associated with the global game, from broadcast media to sports psychology, law, nutrition, facilities management and venture capital business. EMNRBS is a charter, co-ed, and tuition-free high school.

Designed by ESKW/Architects and IMC Architecture, EMNRBS will be located in the 7th School District in the South Bronx, which has the third highest poverty rate and economic need index in New York City. Located at the intersection of the major commercial corridor of 3rd Avenue, Elton Avenue and East 153rd Street, the new building will serve as an anchor tenant in the South Bronx that will help spur community revitalization and inspire investment in commercial, residential and retail growth. The school will operate under a long-term lease from the developer, Pillar Property Management.

Architecture – facts and highlights

• The team of ESKW/Architects and IMC Architecture focused on both creating a comfortable and energetic learning environment and ensuring that the school building represents the ideas of openness and belonging to the South Bronx community. The structure will incorporate large, glazed areas of curtain wall into the façade to both allow passersby to visually engage with activities taking place inside and to remind students that they are part of a vibrant neighborhood and have responsibilities towards it. The designers selected exterior materials that are easily recognizable as associated with both traditional school buildings and athletic facilities, such as brick and concrete panels.
• The five-story building with a cellar will feature state-of-the-art athletic and learning environments, including an 8,000-square- foot gymnasium, a library and media production studio, a dedicated broadcast studio with a green screen and a dining/commons room. It will house 24 regular classrooms, averaging 650 square feet each, as well as two specialty science classrooms and an art studio. There will also be classrooms dedicated to educational training in fields related to basketball, including weight training and physical therapy. The gymnasium will serve as the centerpiece of the building.
• Reflecting the basketball focus, the architecture is inspired by the traditional field house design of the early 1900s, which featured an arched entrance. This element is reflected in the design of the schools’ entrance, prominently located on the corner of 152 nd Street and Elton Avenue. The angular glazing that will be wrapped around and above the main entrance leading into the lobby is an interpretation of this concept. The architects were also inspired by traditional brick facade designs of American schools from the 1920s and 1930s and incorporated a modern adaptation of it into the current design.
• The design concept is focused on well-being and health consciousness, including oversized windows that offer increased amounts of natural light. Similarly, the social interaction aspect of school life is reflected in the dining room and lounge envisioned as a social space and in locating numerous informal social gathering areas on each floor housing classrooms.
• The two-story-high glazing of the curtain wall that will wrap around the entrance will help integrate the building into the community. The designers chose this as a way to announce the presence of the school to the area and invite people into the building, both symbolically and literally.
• The architectural and engineering team faced an interesting challenge of locating a massive gym in a tight, urban location, while ensuring that the building meets the school's programming needs. They achieved this by placing the upper floors above the gym, which is unusual due to structural challenges of building floors above wide-span spaces without columns. ESKW/Architects, IMC Architecture and structural engineers developed an oversized truss structural system that is 12-feet-high with 95-foot-long lower beams. Due to its dimensions, the designers creatively hid the system in the walls and ceilings of the third floor in the area above the gym.
• The building will have an international aspect, as the windows will be manufactured in Germany and the Netherlands and the structural system above the gym will be fabricated by Bretton Steel based in Quebec, Canada. Also, the brick bracing system manufacturer, United Kingdom-based IG Masonry Support’s manufacturing facilities are located in England, Wales and Poland.

Interior design – facts and highlights

• The gym will feature seven clerestory (high location for light intensity control) windows, a DIN-certified engineered wood floating floor system with a high impact absorption degree, designed to mitigate injuries, padding in the school's colors on the north and south ends, telescopic seating for 350 spectators and additional 40 seats for players, coaches and team members.
• The cellar will house the student dining center and lounge. This multi-functional space is designed for social gatherings and will be used as a secondary education area for studying after class. It will feature a nutritional education center and a retail space selling school merchandise during games. Students will receive fresh and nutritional quality food that's cooked onsite in the adjacent full-service kitchen. The cellar will also house a large weight training room that will also be used for physical therapy classes, as well as a dance room and a recording room that are part of the school's music program.
• The focal point of the 1,300-square-foot entrance lobby will be a dramatic 16'x9' TV screen wall that broadcasts the school's branding, programming and information on current events and school activities. 
• The second floor will house a lounge area that will serve as VIP seating for games and a multi-functional library with a media center and conference room. The lounge space next to the library/media center and the broadcast studio will have windows that overlook the gym and the lobby.
• The third through fifth floors will primarily house classrooms and each will contain a whiteboard area for studying after class, as well as various offices.
• All the hallways throughout the school will feature resilient tile flooring and the lockers will be designed with a custom color pattern based on the school's colors. The classrooms will also feature the same flooring and have varied ceiling heights, with some sections up to 10 feet high, and include indirect light fixtures and acoustic tiles.

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Media contact:

Peter Wilk, Wilk Marketing Communications,
917.434.6180, peter@wilkmarketing.com