In this issue:
· New Public School is on the Books for Riverside South
· Hell’s Kitchen Outs a New Hotel
· Former School Becomes Live/Work Space for Artists
· Two Residences Support Seniors and Homeless Adults
· Sustainable Commons Energizes Athletics at Arcadia University
· New Buildings Commemorate Gallic Battle

New Public School is on the Books for Riverside South

Riverside Center School/PS-IS 342.

Dattner Architects

The Upper West Side will gain its first new public school in decades. Designed by Dattner Architects, the 100,000-square-foot Riverside Center School/P.S.-I.S. 342 will be located on the lower five floors of Riverside Center Building 2, a new 43-story residential tower in the 75-acre Riverside South development. Funding for the school portion of the building’s core and shell will be provided as a public benefit by Extell, Riverside South’s developer. The school’s fit out, including a rooftop recreation area, will be provided by the NYC School Construction Authority. Dattner is collaborating with the base-building design team, which includes Atelier Christian de Portzamparc with architect-of-record SLCE. The school has an assigned capacity of 488 students and is expected to open its doors in 2015.

Hell’s Kitchen Outs a New Hotel

Out NYC.

Paul C. Dominguez

Billed as the city’s first gay-/straight-friendly urban resort, the Out NYC is scheduled to open this March in Hell’s Kitchen. Built in the 1950s as a Travelodge, the approximately 90,000-square-foot structure later became a homeless shelter. The 105-room boutique hotel contains rooms ranging from sleep shares for four to 350-square-foot bedroom suites. In addition, the hotel features a 14,000-square-foot nightclub, lounge and cabaret, a restaurant, business/conference center, function space, a 5,000-square-foot wellness center enclosed in a glass-covered atrium, and three distinct landscaped courtyards. Paul C. Dominguez, architect and a managing director of Parkview Developers, served as lead designer, and Matt Markowitz Associates is the architect-of-record.

Former School Becomes Live/Work Space for Artists

El Barrio Artspace.

HHL Architects

Construction has begun on the transformation of former P.S. 109 in East Harlem into El Barrio Artspace, a mixed-use affordable home for local artists and their families, designed by Buffalo-based Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects. Originally designed by Charles B.J. Snyder in the Collegiate Gothic Revival style, the 115,000-square-foot 1898 building is known for its steeply pitched roof, copper-clad cupolas, and decorative terra cotta. Upon completion, the building will contain up to 90 sustainable units of live/work space, ranging from studios to two-bedroom apartments. In addition, the five-story building will contain 10,000 square feet of non-residential space for arts and cultural organizations, a community garden and kitchen, and a green market. Demolition of the building, which was on the National Register of Historic Places, had already begun when the community stepped in and protested. The $50 million community-driven project is being developed by the Minnesota-based nonprofit Artspace with El Barrio’s Operation Fightback. Victor E. Morales Architect is serving as associate architect. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

Two Residences Support Seniors and Homeless Adults

Urban Pathways Hallets Cove House.

Gran Kriegel Associates

Gran Kriegel Associates has designed two new residential buildings for long-term housing with onsite support services. Funded by the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HUD), the almost 45,000-square-foot, eight-story El Rio Residence for Comunilife is located in the West Farms section of the Bronx, and contains 65 efficiency apartments for low-income seniors. Interior common areas include a food warming pantry, lounge, multipurpose room, residents’ storage, laundry room, offices for support services, and front and rear landscaped yards for recreational activities. The project’s small footprint also maximizes separation from a 1901 Neo-Gothic structure that shares the site. Since the historic structure is New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)-eligible, the design required review by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and the SHPO. Because of this, the building’s massing and façade materials were carefully designed to harmonize with its neighbor.

Urban Pathways Hallet’s Cove House, a 32,000-square-foot, L-shaped, six-story facility for formerly homeless adults living with mental illness in Astoria, Queens, includes 50 studios with kitchenettes. Funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health, the project features a communal lounge on each floor, a multipurpose room for dining and informal gatherings, plus a landscaped back yard for passive recreation. Both projects will be completed by the end of 2013.

Sustainable Commons Energizes Athletics at Arcadia University

Arcadia Commons.

Kliment Halsband Architects

Kliment Halsband Architects has completed the 50,000-square-foot Arcadia Commons, a gathering place at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA. The new, three-story building extends the existing recreation and athletic center, giving it a new, gray native schist-and-terra-cotta façade. The building features a multi-purpose space for 500-person assemblies, a gallery for student and faculty work, a café, and an office suite with smaller spaces for informal group meetings. In addition, the existing athletics and fitness facilities have been expanded. Photovoltaic cells on the roof connect to a monitor inside the building displaying real-time information on electrical output. Forty-two geothermal wells under the campus green provide low-emission, energy-efficient heating and cooling, and power the new cooling system for the gymnasium. An energy-recovery system captures and recycles energy, and operable windows allow cross ventilation when outside conditions permit.

New Buildings Commemorate Gallic Battle

Alésia Museum and Archaeological Park.

Bernard Tschumi Architects

An interpretive center, the first phase of the Alésia Museum and Archaeological Park complex designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects, is set to open in March. Located in Burgundy, France, the museum is on the site of the historic Battle of Alésia, between Julius Caesar and the Gauls in 52 B.C., and contains exhibits and interactive displays that contextualize the events of the battle and its aftermath. The cylindrical building, almost 50 feet tall and 164 feet in diameter, features an exterior wood envelope, as the Roman fortifications would have been constructed at the time of the siege, some of which are reconstructed nearby. The roof of the building is planted with low shrubs and trees, camouflaging its presence when seen from the town above. The second building, scheduled to be completed in 2015, will act as a more traditional museum, with a focus on found objects and artifacts excavated from the site. Also cylindrical, but made of stone, the building is partially buried into the hill so that from above it appears to be an extension of the landscape.

THIS JUST IN…

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Hollwich Kushner (HWKN) have been selected to design a new entertainment complex to replace the Pavilion dance club on Fire Island Pines that was destroyed by fire last year.

The Landmark’s Preservation Commission has voted to create the East 10th Street Historic District, between Avenues A and B, which is composed of 26 mid-19th- and early 20th-century buildings.

An exhibition of 18 built and speculative projects designed by LTL ARCHITECTS Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis will be on view at the College of Wooster Art Museum in Wooster, OH, through 03.05.12.

Slade Architecture‘s exhibition “FOR_PLAY,” which focuses on projects both built and unrealized that were designed for play or include an element of play, will be on view at Syracuse University School of Architecture from 01.31-03.23.12.

Spector Group has been chosen to serve as interior architect for 50,000 square feet on three floors for investment management firm, Man Group. Located in midtown, the office is designed to achieve a LEED Gold certification.