Monthly Archives: September 2024

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School

The Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School is the first new school in the City of Yonkers in over 20 years. Based on the $2.4 Billion Yonkers Public Schools Modernization Plan developed by KG+D for Yonkers Public Schools, this new community school is part of the Rebuild Yonkers Schools initiative – a four phase, 13-year project to rebuild all 39 existing public schools. The project became a reality thanks to Mayor Mike Spano, the Yonkers State delegation—Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Senator and Education Committee Chair Shelley B. Mayer—former Superintendent Edward Quezada, and the Yonkers Joint Schools Construction Board. The school was named after the nearby Bronx native, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Built on the site of the former St. Denis Catholic School, the 95,000sf facility houses 675 students in grades Pre-K through 8th and includes spaces for art, science, special projects, dual language curriculum, and computer science.

The building’s exterior design takes cues from the remaining and adjacent St. Denis Church as well as the neighboring apartment building. The Lawrence Street façade was inspired by the verticality of the Church including its bay windows and stone cladding. The McLean Avenue façade complements the massing of the adjacent apartment building. The main stairwell, located on the corner of McLean and Lawrence, features window walls that reconnect the school to the city.

The main entry opens to a spacious cafeteria which features stadium stairs, recessed booth seating, and access to an interior outdoor courtyard. In addition to the cafeteria, the first floor also houses the Pre-K classrooms which have direct access to outdoor spaces. Barn doors divide the classrooms to allow for interclass collaboration. Each of the classroom floors are color coded for easy wayfinding and the upper school corridors provide “moments” or opportunities for casual collaboration. These moments include seating cubbies, a collaboration corner, a media center, and makers space. The corridors also have television monitors for school notices and announcements. To foster relationships and aid in access, administrative offices are interspersed on each of the classroom wing levels.

The Community Building—which has a separate entrance located on Van Cortlandt Park Avenue—houses the physical education wing and a community health clinic that function as a stand-alone community resource after school hours and on the weekends. The corridor that connects the academic and community building features the stone ‘School’ sign from the former St. Denis School and a display case highlighting the former building’s history and the genesis of the new facility.

The school’s sustainable features include photo voltaic solar panels, green roofs, high-efficiency electric heat pumps, extensive natural daylighting with sunshades, low water use plumbing fixtures, fresh air ventilation with MERV 13 filtration, LED light fixtures, recycled content in materials and low VOC interior finishes and furnishings.

Yonkers’ Sonia Sotomayor Community School Opens

The new Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School

The City of Yonkers and Yonkers Public Schools will open the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School (JSSCS) to students this week. The JSSCS is the first new school in the City of Yonkers in over 20 years.

The new 95,000sf community school, houses 675 students in grades Pre-K through 8th and includes spaces for art, science, special projects, dual language curriculum, and computer science. Designed to be a community resource, the physical education wing and a community health clinic function as a stand-alone community resource after school and on the weekends.

More:
CBS New York: Yonkers’ Innovative Sotomayor Community School
Yonkers’ School Anchor for the Community
Sotomayor School Debut
New School Opens in Yonkers
Innovative Community School

LMC Media: Studio on the Avenue

LMC Media’s Studio on the Avenue brings together a vision for positive community engagement with contemporary design, state of the art engineering, and high-quality construction. One of LMC’s driving forces throughout the design process was to make it easy for community members to engage with the studio from the sidewalk, to witness the technical work taking place in the green room, and to participate in the studio in podcasts being recorded.

The community’s experience of the studio begins at the street, where passersby can see into the space and watch the production staff working in the green room. The audio-visual recording equipment in the green room can be seen through the storefront glass and the space itself includes a built-in workspace and furniture that allows guests to visit and observe. From the green room, one can see clearly into the studio space where the living room-type furniture compliments the existing brick wall to create a cozy, inviting, and intimate space for podcast hosts and their guests. Off camera and along one wall in the studio are editing stations, above which are textured acoustic panels to help control the sound in the space. Close attention was paid to acoustics throughout the project from the design and construction of the glass wall system enclosing the studio, to the acoustic ceiling treatments, to the choice of finishes that shape the ambience.

Studio on the Avenue was designed to support the community. By creating a place where people feel welcome and inspired to tell their stores, in turn, the community is truly helping to support the Studio.