10 BOUCK COURT

Location: Brooklyn, NY
Date of Completion: 2016
Program: Educational (Pre-K) / Renovation
Size: 22,400 sq ft.
Client: NYC School Construction Authority
Sustainability: Compliant to NYCSCA Green Building Code

The new Pre-Kindergarten at 10 Bouck Court in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn is a 22,400 square foot renovation of a single-story building located in an industrial corridor. Part of New York City's new universal Pre-K program, the new school provides naturally lit, inwardly-focused classroom and gathering spaces. Strategically selected design elements, including a green wall in the entry forecourt and a sky-lit interior plaza for school and community gatherings, provide a welcome respite on an urban site with few readily apparent amenities. The renovation also incorporates cost-and-schedule-conscious flood-proofing measures, required due to the project's location in a high-risk coastal flood zone area.
BIM: This project is the last Auto CAD project as directed by the SCA. our staff objected to information loss involved in flattening SCA standards that were provided in Revit. 

Photographer(s): Albert Vecerka/ESTO

Project concept: The Rose That Grew from Concrete

A school renovation for Pre-K. 
A community of children and teachers located across the street from an elevated train line and a sanitation industrial garbage dumping ground. 
An opportunity to create for young bodies and minds. 
A place of natural light. 
A place of magic, serenity and fantasy. 
A place for the young to imagine. 
A place of rooms and meeting spaces scaled for intimacy with light and its ever changing patterns, delight, dark, soft, hard and shadows. 

The forecourt - a garden in the concrete - begins the architectural sequence. A metaphor for the potential of all young bodies and minds. 

The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur:
“Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete? 
Proving nature's laws wrong, 
it learned to walk without having feet. 
Funny, it seems to by keeping it's dreams; 
it learned to breathe fresh air. 
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else even cared.”