“Our design team worked with the New York State Historic Preservation Office to establish guidelines for the project that respected the context of South Street Seaport and the aesthetics of the former postal facility while also recognizing that the new school should have its own distinct character.” – Thomas Rowe, AIA, Design Principal
PRISM.pub, a new online journal, resource and cooperative effort to further sustainable building practices recently published an article on Public School 343 – The Peck Slip School, authored by Principal Thomas Rowe.
The project, the conversion of an existing U.S. Postal Service Station located within Manhattan’s South Street Seaport Historic District embodies PRISM’s mission: to disseminate information on the sustainable built environment and to further the cause of sustainable building. PRISM believes that sharing sustainable success stories will help achieve a sustainable future while ensuring the preservation of the past.
Commissioned by the New York City School Construction Authority (NYCSCA), the goal of the project was to re-use an existing 1950’s post office facility to help fill the need for school capacity in a rapidly emerging residential community. Located on Peck Slip between Pearl Street and Water Street, the new facility accommodates a capacity of 712 students in grades Pre-K through 5. The project encompasses approximately 97,000 SF in seven floors above grade. The project scope includes a 69,300 SF renovation and adaptive re-use of the four existing floors of the building and a 27,700 SF vertical addition of three new floors.