Packer Collegiate Institute
MERIT AWARD
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Packer's middle school occupies a new facility inside the former St. Ann's church building. A contemporary "building within a building" rises up five stories incorporating the 19th-century nave. Classrooms are equipped with state-of the-art wireless Internet capability. Adjacent to the middle school is a glazed link, which attaches the buildings, and the new Packer dining commons, which are housed in the original parish house.

Data Owner The Packer Collegiate Institute Type of Facility Elementary; middle/junior high school; high school; innovative learning environment; master plan Type of Construction Addition; renovation/modernization Area of Building 74,512 square feet Total Project Cost $24,000,000 Status of Project Completed

Credits Architect Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, LLP New York, NY Structural Engineer Robert Sillman Associates, P.C. New York, NY Mechanical Engineer/Electrical Enginee Cosentini Associates, LLP, Consulting Engineers New York, NY Electrical Engineer Cosentini Associates, LLP, Consulting Engineers New York, NY

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PROJECT CONTEXT

• Size of school district, college, or client organization:
  933 students
  
• Population of community:
  There are 7,300,000 people in New York City
  There are 2,240,000 people in the Borough of Brooklyn
  (Source: 1997 estimate, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census and the City of New York, Department of City Planning.)

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QUALITATIVE PROJECT DATA

• What were the three greatest challenges of this project?
  1. Providing innovative spaces that responded to the school's pedagogical requirements and existing architecture.
  2. Addressing the need for divisional integrity through master planning.
  3. Formulating a design strategy to convert a 19 th -century ecclesiastical structure into a state-of-the-art, 21 st -century secular educational facility.
  
  
• What are the three most unusual features of the solution?
  1. Structurally independent, five-story classroom stack constructed in the nave of a Victorian gothic church housing 18 classrooms.
  2. The exterior glazed connector or “link.”
  3. Fourth floor flexible teaching space formed in the former clerestory of the nave.

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1. What is the philosophy of the client? What process was used to establish the vision and goals for this project? Who was involved? How did the process affect the learning environment?
   The client is one of the oldest and most respected educational institutions in New York City, and has been innovative since its beginnings. Founded in 1845, it was the first school in the city to offer higher education to young women. Today, the client offers a rich, varied, and progressive experience that draws from the diversity of all five boroughs.
   
   The client’s philosophy consists of a commitment to both innovation and providing an excellent education. Through sustained dialog at every phase of the project with the headmaster, board of trustees, division directors, and many faculty members, the design team clearly documented and presented to the school a set of specific project goals and a programming document that served as a conceptual guide to keep both the school and design team on track.
   
   The learning environments that resulted as a product of this process were a clear reflection of the client’s goals and values.
   
   
2. What goals or guiding design principles did the team establish to inform the design of the building? How is the building an expression of the philosophy and goals? What were the primary needs? How were those needs creatively accommodated? What method was used to verify that the design met the goals and provided for the needs? What is different and innovative about the learning environments in this project?
   The architecture was guided by three layers of goals and principles: the master planning goals, pedagogical methodology, and architectural attitudes.
   
   The master planning goals consisted of three pragmatic elements that defined the primary needs of the school and informed adjacencies and program:
   
   1. Providing “divisional integrity” for each of the lower, middle, and upper school divisions.
   2. Providing a new “heart” for the school where all divisions can come together at a crossroads.
   3. Mending and clarifying circulation among the facility’s six buildings, which had become muddied through protracted growth over the last 150 years.

   The second guiding layer consisted of the school’s progressive pedagogical methodology, which centered on the use of mobile computing technology as a learning tool. To cater to new ways of learning, design was to allow for gathering in small and large groups, formal and informal, impromptu and planned, throughout the complex. Public and educational spaces throughout the complex were affected by this.
   
   Finally, the design team’s architectural attitudes toward the existing architecture of the site had a profound impact of the project’s form. As an adaptive reuse of a historic structure, it was established early on that retaining the character of St. Ann’s Church and Parish Hall was of prime importance.
   
   The physical form of the spaces is a creative expression of the interplay of these three layers of principles and goals. The design team relied on them throughout the design process as a conceptual framework in which to make decisions, as well as a benchmark by which they could evaluate whether the design was on track.
   
   What is different and innovative about the learning environments in this project is that this process not only resulted in the creation of spaces that satisfy the school’s basic needs and reflect it’s philosophy, teaching methodology, and values, but also resulted in the creation of unusual, architecturally exciting spaces that are unlike those anywhere else.
   
   

3. How does this project exemplify excellence in design?
   The work at Parker Collegiate satisfies the project goals, programmatic needs, and philosophical requirements, and introduces a series of exciting and architecturally innovative spaces for the school.
   
   Developing a glazed link at the center of the complex, with adjacent theater, dining commons, and public areas, defines a new “heart” for the school. The link both frames the school’s existing architecture and represents its progressive spirit. Its structural glass curtainwall visually ties the commons to outdoor play areas. Common space in the link can be used for informal group learning, small assemblies, or large gatherings. The new link also acts as a crossroads for the entire school. It simplifies circulation between buildings and floors. Connecting to the main building just steps from the front door, the distance from place to place has been dramatically reduced.
   
   Relocating the middle school from the main building into St. Ann’s Church freed up classrooms for use by the upper school and lower school. Each of the three divisions now has its own domain and architectural identity.
   
   The most striking feature of the project was the design and adaptive reuse of historic St. Ann’s Church (1869, Renwick and Sands) as the client’s middle school. The client acquired St. Ann’s in 1969, but until now the building was severely underutilized, with the basement housing the lower school library and some administrative functions. The design team recognized the importance of maintaining both the middle school’s academic program and the features of the church. Their answer was to insert an 18-classroom structure into the nave that preserves the sanctuary’s height and the integrity and proportions of this grand space. Faculty and students can look out into the church’s soaring spaces and experience the original architecture as they move through the new facility.
   
   

SPECIAL DESIGN CRITERIA

• How did the planning and design involve the larger community?
  The design team addressed the concerns of the community as represented by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Although St. Ann 's Church is not itself a designated landmark, Brooklyn Heights is a Landmark District and any exterior alteration is subject to review. The design team presented extensively to the commission in several interactive meetings. Commissioners had input into determining changes to the façade and the massing of the complex, and had a profound effect on the design. The project was also presented to the local community board for comment and review.
  
  
• What aspects of the clients' goals and program shaped the project, and how does the design reflect those goals?
  Throughout the design process, the client's program and goals were the foundation of the project design. Their desire for “divisional integrity,” or for the lower, middle, and upper school each to have its own home, drove the master planning process. It prompted the relocation of the middle school to the church structure, introduction of the link as a central node or crossroads, and consolidation of performing arts facilities around the link. The desire for improved common facilities and the school's requirement for spaces that accommodate the use of mobile laptop technology prompted relocation of the dining facilities and creation of student commons on three levels of the link.
  
  
• Describe different and effective uses of space for supporting learning.
  Several types of learning space are provided in the new design:
  • In the new middle school, classrooms with flexible seating, along with smartboard and wireless technology, are the core teaching spaces.
  • In corridors adjacent to middle school classrooms on the second and third floor, balconies extending into the church side aisles are breakout spaces for students to work in groups during or between classes. Transparency through walls of classrooms and offices allow all spaces to be supervised from multiple vantage points.
  • On the fourth floor of the middle school, among Victorian Gothic hammer-beams in what was once the clerestory of St. Ann 's Church, a flexible teaching area provides for as many as four classes; the space is flooded with natural light and provided with movable acoustic partitions that can be reconfigured in many different ways.
  • In the church side aisles and in the link, student commons provide central places for students from all divisions to come together to work in groups, have performances, and hold special events.
    
    
• How does the design incorporate technology to enhance learning?
  With developments in computer technology, the Internet, and other communications, students are learning in radically new ways. The traditional model of learning in classrooms and interacting in hallways has yielded to a new, less rigid hierarchy: students now learn and interact using laptops and other electronic devices anywhere, anytime.

  The ability of students to connect through technology creates the need for incidental spaces that allow both social interaction and self-paced, project-based learning. Accommodating the need for these spaces required understanding of how corridors, nooks, and crannies could be exploited, and how to offer small resource and seminar rooms. The expansion provides these. Circulation spaces, lobbies, and common areas are designed and furnished as informal learning places.

  In each classroom, a smartboard is a central teaching element that allows teachers (and students) to connect their laptops and present material from the Internet, PowerPoint, DVDs, and DVD-ROMs. They act like giant touch-screen monitors, enabling teachers to use many kinds of software as part of their classes.
  
  

• How does the design encourage lifelong learning?
  The design of the new facility, through its spatial design and technology, fosters students' lifelong curiosity by encouraging impromptu meetings, allowing students to find answers to questions on demand through use of wireless Internet access, and providing students with an environment that encourages thought about what happens when new meets old.
  
  
• What aspects of the design responded to the surrounding physical and cultural context?
  Each element of the project responded directly to the surrounding physical and cultural context:
  • The new middle school in St. Ann 's Church is most intimately connected with its context. The new four-story classroom stack reads as a contemporary architectural intervention in the church. Its metallic, etched mirror and clear glass skin both contrast and reflect the surrounding historical church. Corridors are formed on balconies that weave in and out of the side aisle and create new vantage points from which to experience the building. The former clerestory of the nave is now a flexible teaching area, nestled in the building's hammer beams. Classrooms have glazed walls, allowing views to the former side aisles, which act as light wells. Cultural and religious elements of the church have been modified; the stained glass, with its religious subjects, has been placed in various cultural institutions. Today there is clear, historically inspired, diamond-pane glass that allows natural light to infiltrate the spaces.
  • The new dining commons returns the parish hall to its original function: that of gathering.
  • The exterior glazed link encloses the facility's central crossroads. Its interior walls, previously exterior masonry, have been cleaned, repointed, and dramatically lit, and can be seen through the new glass wall.
    
    
• How did the design fit into the existing context of neighborhood and community?
  Much of the client's urban campus existed well before the neighboring buildings did. The school is a neighborhood landmark, as are the church and parish hall they expanded into. Therefore, work on the exterior of the buildings revolved around responsible stewardship. Degraded slate roofing was replaced, spalling brownstone and mortar repaired, clerestory windows refurbished, missing pinnacles replicated, acrylic covers that had protected the severely degraded stained glass were permanently removed, and windows were replaced.
  
  The new exterior link and terrace is the only new construction visible from the street. Its architectural materials reflect those of the surrounding buildings: the sandstone terrace echoes the sandstone of the church; the new brick stair tower draws its range from adjacent brick buildings. The new transparent, structural glass curtainwall enclosing the link allows the previously exterior masonry walls to be seen from the street.
  
  If the project used existing building infrastructure, what imaginative design features evolved?
  The most imaginative design features emerged as a result of applying the client's program to the existing church building:
  • The side aisles, with the balcony removed and stained glass replaced with clear glass, became large open light wells. The first floor of these areas is the middle-school commons, where refurbished pews provide places for students to work or socialize.
  • On the second and third levels, balconies extending into the side aisles form the principal circulation. Alcoves protruding from the corridor beyond the cast-iron columns provide breakout spaces where teachers can send students from their classrooms to work on small group projects.
  • On the fourth floor, to preserve the architecture of the nave's former clerestory, a single, large, reconfigurable teaching space has been created for as many as four classes.
  • In the former chancel arch, the principal stair winds its way to within feet of the rose window and faux-painted coffered ceiling.

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