Frank Sinatra School of the Arts

What were the circumstances of receiving the commission for this project?

Our selection as architects for the new Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a New York City public high school for the visual and performing arts, resulted initially from discussions with the leadership of Exploring the Arts, a private foundation begun by Tony Bennett and his wife Susan, founders of the school. The project was a public / private partnership between New York City and the Bennett’s foundation. Based on our experience designing many well known and award-winning performance spaces, arts facilities, and schools we were recommended to the chancellor of New York City schools. Our previous experience designing two new schools for the School Construction Authority (the contracting agency for New York City Public Schools) established our familiarity with the process of working with the city. Discussions continued as visits were made to Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and the new Lycee Francais de New York, two recently completed examples of our work which we felt established unique and powerful identities for institutions establishing new models for arts and education in the United States. We were commissioned to design a building that would visually and spatially express the school’s mission and actively engage the community.

Can you describe your design process for the building?

The challenge of designing a large school on a compact site in a dense, low-rise urban environment required careful attention to the vertical organization of the building. Numerous alternatives were explored. We sought to strategically highlight the arts-related spaces and to infuse interactive community spaces and impromptu performance areas throughout the building to create a memorable environment for arts education. This strategy also strengthened the opportunity to present these ideas outwardly, expressing the school’s curriculum and the symbolic importance of arts education on the building’s primary facade.

The site, a 200 foot square area, had to be transformed from a parking lot with a deserted WWII army barrack to accommodate the new school program of 147,000 square feet as well as parking for 100 cars. After considerable exploration, the solution became quite simple—build the new school on a structural platform of lower level parking with a five story building above. The design process explored revealing the arts related curriculum within the building along the major avenue facing the Museum of the Moving Image and the Kaufman Astoria Film Studios. The openness and transparency of the building’s primary façade along 35th avenue was intended to support the vision of a powerful presence for arts education in the neighborhood and the city. The arts related program revealed in the façade of the building was considered important both day and night.

A multi-story skylit volume was proposed to introduce daylight into the center of the building and establish a multi-level zone of interchange and collaboration amidst a frame of densely ordered spaces. Cutting through the entire building to unify the vertical organization of the building, this multi-story, skylit lobby is intended to give a compositional focus to the building while highlighting the curvilinear form and creating a dramatic entry sequence to the Tony Bennett Concert Hall, an 800-seat venue which serves as the programmatic heart of the building. A “green” rooftop courtyard and outdoor performance space was carved out of the top floor to provide valuable exterior space for gathering in a dense urban environment.

How does the completed building compare to the project as designed? Were there any dramatic changes between the two and/or lessons learned during construction?

The design and the completed project are very similar. From the outset we were aware of the constraints of designing and building a low-bid NYC project, but needed to balance that with the Bennett’s aspirations for an important piece of architecture to represent their vision. The strength and clarity of the sectional idea and the building’s identity along the avenue were essential to withstanding the inherent challenges of the design and construction process.

How does the building compare to other projects in your office, be it the same or other building types?

Our extensive experience working in the public realm has taught us that our design approach and conceptual strategy must be crystal clear and duly responsible to the intended program in order to withstand the challenges of the process. This project in particular has established a new level of expectation for New York City Schools. The building and its overall spatial experience have captured the imagination of students, teachers and passersby alike. Like many of our projects around the city, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts is a memorable, welcome surprise to come upon and provides visual punctuation to its neighborhood by simply making the ordinary somewhat extraordinary.

Are there any new/upcoming projects in your office that this building's design and construction has influenced?

I think you’ll see a number of projects from our studio in the next few years that emerge from every borough in this dense metropolis and stake a claim to the importance of design no matter what the program is. Whether we are designing housing for homeless in Brooklyn (Schermerhorn House for Common Ground Community / Actor’s Fund of America), a new firehouse (FDNY’s Rescue Company 3) or assistance for the homeless (DHS Family Intake Center) in the Bronx, or the new State Supreme Courthouse in St. George on Staten Island, we take a serious look at our city to determine how to make its everyday buildings memorable and strikingly engaging

E-mail interview conducted by John Hill