Education Project
Design/Build a High School in a New York Minute

When everything about the teaching and learning process for a new high school in Lower Manhattan would be far from traditional, Community Board 1 and the principal decided upon an unusual location–four floors of a downtown office building–and HLW introduced a construction process the New York City School Construction Authority had not tried–design-lead design/build. The driving force behind Millennium High School was to integrate the community of students, teachers, business people and area residents. With multiple settings for learning that exclude traditional rectangular classrooms and long narrow hallways, informal and formal learning settings are accommodated throughout the design. At Millennium, the whole community can gather-a much needed resource in Lower Manhattan that was borne out of Governor Pataki’s aggressive plan for the revitalization of Downtown post 9/11, where more than $50 million has been committed from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. In April 2003, architecture/engineering/consulting firm HLW was commissioned to provide design/build services for Millennium High School at 75 Broad Street-an office building that had lost tenants after the dot-com bust. Working under the constraints of a 14-week schedule for the first phase of the project, HLW had to coordinate the design and construction of the school’s dedicated entrance lobby and 13th floor (40,000 sq.ft.) to accommodate over 250 ninth and tenth graders by September 2003. The school’s development was guided by Principal Robert Rhodes’ constructivist education approach that allows students to custom-design a program based on their strengths and to learn in teams, according to Peter G. Bachmann, AIA, project manager for HLW. Thus, the school had to be designed to support the unique educational model. “Principal Rhodes has a clear notion of his education theory and had a vision for the construction of his school, but he had only worked in a traditional school environment until this point. He did not have a clear picture of how his theories could influence the physical environment,” says Bachmann, also HLW’s K-12 practice leader. “We were able to take his ideas and bring them to the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA) where they were innovative.” An office building hosts a school In November 2002, the landlord at 75 Broad Street agreed to have a high school built within the floors of the office building. That’s when Robert Rhodes’ research and proposal for a new high school in downtown Manhattan to serve the young population moving into Tribeca and below Houston Street, took off.

The architects talked to teachers and students who were operating in a temporary space elsewhere, asking them how they teach and learn differently and how they would like to work in a new space, Rhodes explains. “That’s how we got the alcoves that are part of each classroom to facilitate reading and writing and how the staircase between the three floors came to be.

We all sat with the SCA to pick room configurations. I had written an academic grant about the target population and decided what kind of a floor plan and elements were needed. We worked quickly with the design/build approach even though the lease was not signed until June 2003,” says Rhodes.

“Design-build is rare in New York as a delivery method. The SCA and Community Boards go through a time-consuming process, because they do designs, approval and bid before they build, and that takes a lot more time,” says Vivian Chavez, president of design/build for HLW, who was in charge of the entire project with the SCA and landlord, JEMB Realty. “New York City is looking at alternate methods of building schools to spend the $13 billion federal allocation, and it has to be spent in five years,” explains Chavez.

“We hired SCIAME Construction as CM, bid out the subcontractors for best possible pricing, had a six-week design phase and an eight-week construction period. Because everyone was together in the beginning: architects, engineers, SCA, Community Board-all bought into the idea that the project had to be designed in a three-dimensional way,” Chavez says. “M/E/P was always discussed along the way. We talked about systems before the program was fixed. This is the best possible design/build project because the client knew what they were getting before the price was guaranteed. It was an open-book discussion as the SCA also needed to know costs before it signed the lease.”

Not typical, quite flexible In New York, the Department of Education (DOE) sets policy, identifies needs, then the SCA is the project-based organization that builds the schools. For the NYC DOE, both Rhodes’ approach to education and the use of design/build was unique because of the fast track build-out. HLW was involved in DOE/SCA meetings to champion the principal’s ideas. “It worked to the advantage of the project because we did not build DOE typical school spaces,” says Bachmann. “We created a unique environment for learning. The project required flexibility, and the Department and SCA gave it.” “The confluence of influences was spectacular! Rhodes’ project-based learning approach has direct physical ramifications on the space,” says Bachmann. Spaces outside the classroom have few walls. The DOE sees this square footage allocation as the equivalent of a conference room or resource room; but there is no defined or assigned usage at Millennium. “There are tables, chairs and wireless LAN for multi-purpose functions,” Bachmann adds. Instead of rectangular rooms, irregularly shaped and differently shaped rooms were designed. “A reading area-an alcove with soft seating-was designed into each classroom,” says Kim Sacramone, IIDA, design director for interior design, and senior associate, HLW, New York. “We worked very closely with Robert Rhodes and the SCA,” says Sacramone. “It was a balancing act between meeting both expectations and group needs.”

“This school’s design provides accidental and serendipitous spaces for the intersection of adults and students. There’s a direct understanding when one is there of how spaces can be used,” says Bachmann. “The spaces are being used in unexpected ways. There’s a great deal of crossover and creativity applied.”

A wireless LAN was installed so wireless laptops can be used throughout the school. “We installed wireless LAN as a space saver because most schools have a dedicated computer room, but it may not be used for every period,” says Rhodes. “We have sign-out wireless [computer] labs. We can put 10, 12 or 16 computers in the lab; students can use them in designated areas, and teachers can sign out the computers they need.”

To enable ubiquitous laptop use, pendant lighting illuminates the ceiling and work surfaces, similar to a corporate environment that eschews fluorescent light. By adding light to the space, visual communication is improved between the actual classroom and students who may be working in the communal space nearby. It is called an “eyes on the street” approach, and students and teachers both know they are in view of one another. The SCA has standards on blackboards, but teachers (and students) wanted two whiteboards on each side of the classroom. Principal Rhodes and HLW encouraged conference-style seating and tables vs. tablet-arm seating. He also decided against a PA system and alarm bells. It’s very quiet, according to Sacramone and Chavez. “The kids just change class without the jarring alarm bell.”

“At first we had a lot of push back from everyone, but it was followed by a lot of collaboration,” says Sacramone. As it turns out, many of the principal’s ideas were money-saving, too, so the SCA was pleased to conserve funds and keep a principal happy.

“It’s fascinating for me that this would be Class B office space for a company, and we are using it to foster an educational approach,” says Rhodes. “At the time we got the lease the building needed tenants and now they [the landlords] have the 15-year lease from the school with two renewal options taking it up to 45 years.” Today, real estate managers are touring potential tenants through the high school to show it off as an example of what can be done with the space.

Community matters

A Community Center on the ground floor of 75 Broad Street will seat 200, intended for the school/community/public use-also a Rhodes idea. Further, there is a relationship with the YMCA for extra-curricular activities and sports. And like office workers in New York, 80 percent of the students eat outside the building. Phase II, at 70,000 sq.ft., is in construction now as the 11th and 12th floors are completed. Twelve is a community floor with a café like a Starbucks, a media center, and wellness center (not a gymnasium) and an art studio.

“We’re a college prep program, and we have a lot of first-generation Americans who need a free lunch program, yet they attend high school in a college setting with wood study carrels and chairs, high-quality finishes and brightly colored plastic chairs for classrooms in addition to the soft seating,” says Rhodes. “We believe the students feel they are closer to a college environment and have the sense of community.”

“It’s great to see the kids using the space, and hearing reports on how it works from the principal,” says Bachmann. “In traditional schools, teachers have to teach in certain configurations because that’s all there is and space is limited. Rhodes says the space is ‘leading how we're teaching’–an attribute rarely accorded to public school.”