East Harlem School

BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards Citation

By Aleksandr Bierig

“Business goal” is a vague term. Sometimes it means sales figures and revenue, but sometimes a business goal can be the efficient use of limited resources, or the expression of an organization’s core values. For the East Harlem School in Manhattan, Peter Gluck and Partners created a building that boosts the profile of a nonprofit charter school and provides a stimulating environment for students and staff.

The school houses about 120 students, in grades five through eight, who are recruited from low-income families in the area. It was founded in 1993 by Ivan and Hans Hageman, brothers who inherited the site from their father, a reverend, who in 1963 had established a rehabilitation center there. In 2005, Ivan came to Peter Gluck and Partners with the hopes of building a new facility to replace a run-down structure. “Ivan described his idea of the school as a cloister of education,” says Marc Gee, AIA, associate principle, “a safe environment where kids could step off of the street, protected from the influences of the neighborhood.”

Gluck’s primary challenge was to build a structure that embraces the community while selectively blocking it out. “Ivan told us: ‘I don’t want the kids staring out the windows. I want it as interesting inside as it is outside,’” says Gee. The result is a syncopated façade of glass and composite Trespa panels that lets light in while framing tight views to limit classroom distraction. Classrooms are located on the upper floors of the four-story facility, with the more communal programs, such as a large cafeteria and gymnasium, on the second floor and basement levels. Detailing throughout reflects the goals of the school—circle patterns gesture toward the daily “circle,” a communal mediation routine that is among the central tenets of the school. For the faculty, the pressures of an extended schedule—the school day runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.—are alleviated by exercise and lounge areas.

Another aspect of the project was the use of Gluck’s design-build firm, Architectural Construction Services (ARCS). In that arrangement, Gluck’s office acted as general contractor on the project (Gee was technical detail expert on the project), hiring subcontractors to work under its supervision. Under their design-build model, costs and balance sheets are shared with the client, providing a transparent operation and allowing for savings elsewhere. “It’s not perfect,” says Gee, but it’s an improvement over the normal architect/contractor relationship, where one “takes a set of drawings and throws it over a wall, hoping you get a building.” Here, the building and the process that led to it, as well as the school itself, represent a different approach.        

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