First Avenue Elementary/Middle School
East Side High School
Newark, New Jersey
The First Avenue PreK – 8 District School Feasibility Study provided a review of a neighborhood site for redevelopment into a combined elementary and middle school. The program provided homerooms for all of the students to meet a capacity of 750. The program and feasibility design provided separate entrances for the elementary and middle schools to foster a sense of identity. A two-story design was developed to maintain the residential scale of the neighborhood and respond to the urban character of First Avenue. Courtyards were introduced to reduce the scale, provide recreation, and increase the natural daylight into the classroom spaces. Special spaces, the auditorium, gymnasium, and library were used as anchors for the placement of the building and provide after-hours community use.
The building program provided approximately 160,000 gsf of learning space, which the majority of students could access by walking. Paulus, Sokolowski and Sartor's (PS&S) services included an architectural* program, geotechnical report, site survey, E.O. 215 Report, alternative floor plan layouts, environmental analysis report, utility survey, a budget, and conceptual images to show how the scale of the building fits into the residential neighborhood.
The East Side High School Feasibility Study provided a review of three potential sites for a new high school for approximately 1550 students. PS&S organized a field team to identify opportunities and constraints of three sites to better understand the size of each site, environmental conditions, zoning, proposed service requirements, access and building fit.
The program and floor plans were developed by PS&S to organize the school into four distinct “academies” with dedicated classrooms and specialized spaces. These “academies” were placed along a student commons, which connected the academic spaces, gymnasium, data center, cafeteria, and auditorium. These spaces were orchestrated to provide an adaptive reuse of the existing warehouse, reduce construction cost by taking advantage of existing concrete slabs, steel columns and beams, and provide a north/south axis of the building for natural light.
PS&S provided a program, alternative floor plan layouts, selection of the proposed site for development, environmental analysis report, geotechnical report, site survey, E.O. 215 Report, a budget, and conceptual images to show how the scale of the building fits into the city fabric.
*Architectural services are provided by Paulus, Sokolowski and Sartor Engineering, P.C., Paulus, Sokolowski and Sartor Architecture, P.C., PS&S California, Inc., or Paulus, Sokolowski & Sartor Architecture and Engineering Connecticut, P.C.