Lycée Français de New York
New York City
Polshek Partnership Architects

Polshek Partnership maintains an old school’s elegance while delivering space, light, and unity to its new building

© Richard Barnes

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By Sam Lubell

Lycée Français’ new campus on Manhattan’s Upper East Side offers a study in contradictions. Divided into north (Upper School) and south (Lower School) towers and linked in the center by common spaces, the building alternates between spacious and intimate, Modern and traditional, practical and elegant, urban and insular. The architect, Polshek Partnership, has skillfully integrated a wide array of competing needs into a building program that was demanding even by New York City standards.

The French school made the difficult decision to leave its beautiful (but cramped) Beaux Arts town houses, scattered on six sites throughout the East Side, in 1999. Completion of the new quarters in 2003 made Lycée Français the first independent school in Manhattan to build a new facility in decades (like the Lycée, New York’s other schools had for years been adding new buildings as needed in a piecemeal fashion).

Before the move, says Yves Thézé, the school’s head, students of various ages had little sense of connection with each other, while most spent considerable time in transit. Thézé says he took an average of twenty cabs a week, shuttling between the school’s various buildings. Thus the new location provides more space and modern facilities and also, Thézé says, a school spirit and a sense of community that was long-missing.

But accommodating 1,250 students and faculty once housed in six buildings into one, 158,000-square-foot space was not achieved without a struggle. Another formidable effort was incorporating the cherished elegance of the school’s former buildings, as well as the strict French desire for order, into a sleek Modern building that had no interest in trying to imitate the past.

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Location:
New York City

Gross square footage:
158,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$55 Million

Owner:
Lycée Français de New York

Architect:
Polshek Partnership Architects, LLP
320 West 13th Street
New York, New York 10014
212.807.7171 tel
212.807.5917 fax
www.polshek.com