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Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School

About This Project

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.