New York Campus

Our Building

• Avenues’ school building on Tenth Avenue, with High Line behind it. The building is an historic architectural structure in the landmark district of Chelsea.

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• 26th Street Early Learning Center entrance. This smaller-scale entry provides direct access for Avenues’ youngest learners and their parents.

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• Entering on Tenth Avenue through the original 1928 copper entry doors, visitors pass into a dramatic lobby.

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• Stairs going to the second floor. The stairs create a visual connection with the third floor, where one can see the trees and green space of the high line.

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• Created as a studio, the lower school Library will prepare students for the experience of working collaboratively in a “studio” environment.

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• Middle and Upper School learning studios. The technology-rich studio environment will support traditional instructional needs with a range of learning opportunities.

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• Middle and Upper School seminar rooms are designed for discussion, collaboration, and presentation.

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• Roof playground and gardens for the Early Learning Center.

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Design Standards That Reflect Best Practices and Decades of Relevant Experience

The architecture firm Perkins Eastman and the interior design firm Bonetti/Kozerski Studio have together created an innovative design for Avenues’ flagship New York City campus. The structure exemplifies a “best practice” approach to contemporary school design. Derived from a number of innovations in other areas, the design combines the best from the fields of technology, ergonomics and environmental design with the experience of top educators and school administrators from around the world. Avenues has assembled a team of unmatched experience and unequalled passion for understanding the challenges and opportunities in delivering a 21st century education.

Avenues’ creative and environmentally sensitive reuse of an existing building demonstrates what is possible now while also exhibiting a vision for the future of education. It capitalizes on the nature of learning and the psychology behind education. Space is imagined as a canvas for the support of individual and group activities and is designed to function and inspire beyond preconceived norms. Avenues will take students who want to achieve beyond their own perceived limitations to the next level.

The building design turns a traditional orthogonal structure into an open and expressive loft-like environment for learning. The school takes its clues from the strong structural grid of the building and large light-filled bays. The exterior characteristics of the building, which include large window bays that extend to the exposed ceiling and offer shadow-free natural light deep into the floor plate of the school, will be maintained as much as possible.

One Building with Four Schools

Avenues is a place of connectivity where students and faculty can exchange and interact in the best sense of what a school should be. The verticality of the ten-story building allows the division of the Early Learning Center, Lower, Middle and Upper Schools into two-floor units and gives each its own identity. All the schools are connected with vertical openings in the floor to allow improved light transmittance through the floor plate and to establish a visual connection between like floors. High ceilings and an abundance of tall clear glass windows fill spaces with the natural light that is characteristic of the Chelsea loft style.

The first floor contains the main entries, the parents’ center and coffee shop and Avenues’ major music support facilities. The second floor is dedicated to the Early Learning Center classrooms for three- and four-year-olds. The third floor contains Avenues’ two dining halls and a studio workspace for the Upper School. This floor, directly adjacent to the High Line, features a high ceiling and light-filled space with direct views to the High Line. The fourth, fifth and sixth floors comprise the Lower School; the seventh and eighth floors are the Middle School; and a portion of eighth floor plus the ninth and tenth floors are the Upper School. The ninth and tenth floors also house Avenues’ 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art athletic and fitness space that includes locker rooms, weight and aerobic training spaces and a full-sized gymnasium—plus access to the rooftop play areas.

The design culminates in a beautifully designed rooftop recreation and play space with views to many areas of the city, including the Empire State Building, the Hudson River, Chelsea Piers and the High Line. The school’s roof area has been designed with students in mind; the south roof will feature playgrounds for Early Learning Center and Lower School students, with the north side of the roof reserved for Middle and Upper School students.

An Adaptive Reuse; a Sustainable Solution

The ultimate sustainable building solution in cities is to avoid demolishing usable structures in favor of new facilities. Renovating an existing building maintains the investment made in the embodied energy of the original building and avoids the energy necessary to demolish, dispose of the waste, and manufacture and transport materials for new construction. Beginning with a good building and using sound building practices epitomizes one of Avenues’ core values: it visually demonstrates the commitment to provide a sustainable future for all children.

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