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| The school will open for the 2010 season |
Steady residential growth in Battery Park City (BPC) has led the city and BPC Authority to fund a new school for kindergarten through eighth-grade students. Construction of the new PS/IS 276 began in August 2008 at 55 Battery Place, located between 1st and 2nd Place. Designed by Dattner Architects, the eight-story, 125,000-square-foot brick-clad school will open in time for the 2010 school year, serving 950 students, with 100 seats for special education students.
As part of the city’s new “green development” initiative, PS/IS 276 will be one of the first in the city built under the New York City School Construction Authority’s Green Schools Guide, developed by Dattner Architects in 2007.
Considered a “high-rise” school, the eight-story building will have public-assembly spaces and pre-kindergarten through fourth grades on the first four floors. Shared spaces, such as the cafeteria, library, art, and other specialized classrooms are planned for the fifth and sixth floors. Fifth through eighth grades will fill the seventh and eighth floors.
A 10,000-square-foot outdoor playroof will be built on the third floor, and an outdoor multi-purpose room on the eighth floor.
To make the building more environmentally sound, all classrooms will be well lit with natural light to reduce the need for overhead lighting. Combined with extra insulation, solar panels, high-efficiency boilers, and other equipment, the school will reduce its energy costs by more than 25 percent. Roof-mounted photo-voltaic cells alone will generate 50 kilowatts of energy -- roughly one-third of the energy needed to light the school. High-efficiency plumbing will also let the school use 40 percent less potable water than it otherwise would, and 80 percent of the building’s construction waste will be recycled.
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