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Closing Bell: Heights Montessori Renovated, Expanded
This is old news at this point, but the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School in Cobble Hill has completed a renovation and expansion that was years in the making. The Montessori purchased the adjacent fire patrol station at 12 Dean Street in July 2009. The result? The school added 11,000 square feet to the existing campus and also renovated the entire facility. It’s pretty cool looking. Click through for more photos.
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School [Official Site] GMAP
Photos by Keith Telfeyan (more…)
05/24/2012 4:00 PM
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One-Room School House Looking for Home in PLG
Brooklyn-based teacher Noah Apple Mayers is working with a group of parents to start an “urban one room school house” in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, to be called the Brooklyn Apple Academy. The hope is to open a school in a basement space of PLG (not determined as of yet) and offer a three-day-a week program for students ages four to six. They are accepting four to six students for the year but hope that number grows, especially if the school expands to five-days-a-week. The tuition will be approximately $8,000 per term. If you’re interested, email Brooklynappleacademy@gmail.com.
05/17/2012 2:00 PM
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Closing Bell: PS 321 Spring Auction Underway
Yesterday the PS 321 Spring Auction went live with over 400 products, events and gift certificates. Bidding will last through May 16th. Here are a few auction highlights: Rock-climbing by the Gowanus, a month of drum lessons, a pair of VIP tickets to The Colbert Report, an overnight trip to the American Museum of Natural History, lots of restaurant gift certificates, and tickets to Annie the Musical. All proceeds go toward the PS 321 students. Bid here!
05/02/2012 4:00 PM
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Cobble Hill Parents Still Fighting School Construction
The parent’s fight against construction work at PS 29 in Cobble Hill came to a head last Friday, when a group of about 70 parents protested the work scheduled to begin that night. The concern revolves mainly around the asbestos abatement and the dust levels caused by construction, scheduled to happen while kids are still in school. There was a previous protest last Monday. Parents met with the the School Construction Authority three days after the first protest (involving a three-hour meeting covered in detail by the Times), at which one parent told us “a pathetic display” of responsiveness to the matter at hand was evident. Despite the meeting, the SCA planned to begin work on Friday, so parents announced another protest, and even threatened to form a human chain around the site to stop construction. Work on the asbestos abatement did not begin Friday because more prep work is needed. But some parents are filing for an injunction, while others have threatened to remove their children from school if the abatement proceeds. “It’s not only wrong, it’s criminal,” parent Michael Nigro told us, regarding the failure of the SEC and and Department of Environmental Protection to put notifications up of the aesbestos abatement seven days before work begins. He stated that the SCA had “rendered the parents powerless.” The SCA still says the work will stay on schedule. There are about 30 days left of school, with interior and exterior construction continuing into the summer. See more pictures from the protest and last Thursday’s hearing after the jump.
Rally Tonight to Halt Work at PS 29 [Brownstoner] (more…)
04/30/2012 11:30 AM
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Downtown Brooklyn-NYU Deal: Victory Lap Edition
McBrooklyn put up the fine montage you see above of photos and renderings showing the present and future of 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, which NYU will transform into a tech-oriented campus, as covered yesterday. The Eagle fleshes out details on the deal: The school will be known as the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress, or CUSP. And what’s more? According to the Eagle: “This would be a partnership between NYU and several other universities worldwide — City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto, University of Warwick and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay – as well as IBM and Cisco. The school would accommodate approximately 530 graduate and doctoral students, as well as 50 full-time faculty and about 30 post-doctoral researchers, Bloomberg said. While the renovated building is not expected to be ready for use until 2017, classes are scheduled to begin next year at Metrotech. IBM and Cisco will each provide $1 million a year, and four other founding corporate partners — Con Edison, National Grid, Seimens and Xerox — will each assist with $500,000 a year in cash and in-kind services. NYU will be responsible for the $60 million that it will take to relocate NYC Transit and police department equipment within the building. A portion of the building will be demolished, and a six-story annex for lab space will be constructed.” Meanwhile, the Post has some more details about the project, noting the city will put $15 million toward the project: “The venture is slated to produce 2,200 immediate construction jobs and 900 permanent jobs at the school. But the city projects it will create a total of 7,700 jobs over the next 30 years, including school positions and those created by a projected 200 spin-off companies expected from the program. In total, it will generate more than $5.5 billion in economic activity and $597 million in tax revenue, Bloomberg said.” Job creation stats and growth forecasts like this are often slightly grandiose. But you know what? Hell yes! Finally, the underused eyesore at 370 Jay will be put to good use and completely change the landscape of Downtown Brooklyn.
New Engineering, Science Campus Coming to 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn [McBrooklyn]
‘Game Changer:’ After Years of Talk, High-Tech Rehab OK’d for 370 Jay St. [Eagle]
CUSP of Greatness: Deal for NYU Engineering School [NY Post]
HOLY COW! NYU Deal for 370 Jay is Happening! [Brownstoner]
Rendering montage via McBrooklyn
04/24/2012 9:00 AM
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Closing Bell: Rally Tonight to Halt Work at PS 29
This evening parents will rally at PS 29 in Cobble Hill in concern of the asbestos removal at PS 29 while school is still in session, which they say is in violation of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection Regulations. A parent tells us: “On Friday afternoon the parents at PS 29 were informed that on Monday asbestos removal would begin around the windows of the school. Everyone one was completely taken by surprised by this including the administration. We are outraged that the SCA thinks it is safe for our kids to attend a school while they are removing asbestos.” Parents circulated a flier which reads: “Do you trust that containment, cleanup, and monitoring and repeat cleanup will be done meticulously and without error and negligence?! Oppose this work taking place while school is in session! Please join all concerned parents as we protest in front of the school building tonight at 5:30PM.” The asbestos removal was supposed to begin at the school tonight, but it is being postponed until Friday due to the weather. Parents are asking that all construction work cease at the school until summer break. You can also sign a petition to stop the construction work here. The school principle is also encouraging parents to come to the PTA meeting this coming Thursday to address ongoing concerns.
04/23/2012 4:00 PM
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Closing Bell: Rally for After-School + Childcare Tomorrow
Above is a shot from yesterday’s City Hall rally to protest city budget cuts to after-school programs and childcare; tomorrow, the advocacy group Campaign for Children will continue to rally at Borough Hall. Campaign for Children will join Marty Markowitz to protest the mayor’s preliminary budget proposal to cut more than 47,000 children from child care and after-school programs. According to CFC, “This is the fifth straight year that the Mayor has cut child care and after-school programs. Added to year after year of cuts, the Mayor’s latest proposal will result in 90,000 fewer children having access to these programs than in 2009 – a 61% decrease.” Parents, children, teachers, and anyone interested are invited to the rally tomorrow, April 19th, 4pm at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street.
04/18/2012 4:00 PM
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DOE Likely to Lease St. Thomas Aquinas After 2013
The Department of Education is in talks with the St. Thomas Aquinas Diocese to secure a longtime lease for a childcare facility, according to Council Member Brad Lander, who spoke at last week’s Community Board 6 meeting. The Diocese, at 9th Street and 4th Avenue in Park Slope, currently houses students displaced due to the PS 133 construction (pictured). We previously reported that school construction would last until September 2013, one year longer than expected, and the diocese would in turn extend its lease for the extra school year. However, it was unclear whether DOE would keep the space after PS 133 reopened. Lander says he is “optimistic” about the possibility of a longtime lease and said the space would be used as an early childcare center to avoid school overcrowding.
Development Watch: P.S. 133 Taking Shape [Brownstoner]
PS 133 Not Opening Until September 2013 [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: PS 133 Goes Vertical [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: The Snowy PS 133 Site [Brownstoner] GMAP
Onward and Upward at PS 133 [Brownstoner]
Last Wall Comes Down at PS 133 [Brownstoner]
Chipping Away at PS 133 [Brownstoner]
PS 133: Memo on the Demo [Brownstoner]
04/16/2012 9:30 AM
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New Brownsville School, Bed-Stuy Condo Coming Soon
Today the Eagle has a story about how two projects spearheaded by the Carver Community Development Corporation in Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant that involve a school and a condo are close to being realized. The first, the rehabilitation of the former Loew’s Pitkin Theater at 1501 Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville, is being turned into a school and will also have retail. It is slated to be finished next month, and the Eagle says it’s “the first major expansion of retail development on Pitkin Avenue in over 40 years.” The building will house the Brownsville Ascend Charter School. The theater had been closed for more than four decades and was in disrepair. Meanwhile, Carver reports that a condo called the Bradford, at 1560 Fulton Street/43 Albany Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, is scheduled to be finished this summer and will have 96 affordable apartments plus retail. (We have been following its development progress closely.) The article says the “brand new six-story, 137,537-square-foot mixed-use residential building that is being constructed on formerly city-owned property will bring the first affordable housing to the area in 15 years.” Carver’s many development partners for the Loew’s rehab include Goldman Sachs, Seedco Financial, Empowerment Reinvestment Fund, Nonprofit Finance Fund and The Rose Urban Green Fund, while the development corp partnered with the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. and Goldman Sachs Urban Investing Group on the Bradford.
Community Foundation Invests in 2 Brooklyn Real Estate Projects [Eagle]
03/23/2012 9:00 AM
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Gentrification Battles Among Parents at Public Schools
This weekend the Times ran a story focusing on the tensions that are evident at several public schools between the newer—and often wealthier parents—and the old-guard parents who sent their kids to the schools before the neighborhoods they’re in became trendier and more expensive. The schools mentioned in Brooklyn include P.S. 295, where there was a PTA skirmish over whether to raise prices on cupcakes at a monthly bake sale from 50 cents to $1; P.S. 11 in Clinton Hill, where there were arguments over how classy an affair the school’s annual auction should be; and at P.S. 261 in Boerum Hill, where some parents “are trying to emulate professional fund-raising outfits, by quietly reaching out to the splattering of bankers and small business owners for large donations, while largely bypassing those who have less. This, of course, has managed to offend people on both sides.” The stats in the article about how the growing wealth in the neighborhoods these schools are in are illuminating: For example, at P.S. 295, the median household income shot up to $60,184 in 2010 from $34,878 10 years earlier. At P.S. 11, in Clinton Hill, 67 percent of students now qualify for a free or reduced-fee lunch, as opposed to the 86 percent that qualified in 2005. This was the section of the article that really stood out:
Such fracases are increasingly common at schools like P.S. 295, where changing demographics can cause culture clashes. PTA leaders are often caught between trying to get as much as possible from parents of means without alienating lower-income families. Sometimes, the battles are over who should lead the PTA itself: many of the gentrifiers bring professional skills and different ideas of how to get things done, while those who improved the school enough to attract them become guardians of its traditions. So along with cross-cultural exchanges, international festivals and smorgasbords, school diversity can mean raw feelings about race and class bubbling to the surface.
Have any readers with kids in local public schools witnessed this phenomenon firsthand?
At the PTA, Clashes Over Cupcakes and Culture [NY Times]
Photo by NYC School Help
03/19/2012 10:00 AM
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Interior and Exterior Upgrades for Cobble Hill’s PS 29
This week Community Board Six reported on the extensive renovation coming to PS 29 at 425 Henry Street, between Baltic and Kane streets. This includes exterior masonry, roof replacement, parapet replacement and flood elimination work. (Here’s the full announcement from the School Construction Authority.) Construction workers were setting up scaffolding when we passed by yesterday, and most of their work will be done outside school hours with an exception in the summertime. The project should last until August 2013. GMAP
03/16/2012 2:40 PM
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Roughing It in Cobble Hill on $350K a Year
You may have read recently about the plight of a finance professional who went on record with Bloomberg bemoaning the difficulty of raising his family in New York on $350,000 a year. “I feel stuck,” he said. “The New York that I wanted to have is still just beyond my reach.” Finance writer extraordinaire Felix Salmon takes a deeper dive on the root of the Cobble Hill resident’s issues:
The problem in brownstone Brooklyn isn’t that the middle class is diminishing. In fact, the whole reason why [he] can’t move into the house he wants is that Brooklyn’s middle class is growing, to the point at which demand from middle-class families for comfortable housing significantly exceeds supply. The natural result is stratospheric prices. Wall Street bonuses might be down this year. But there’s still an enormous amount of money in New York — so much money, in fact, that [he] feels unable to buy exactly the house he wants. I don’t think anybody is going to feel sorry for him — but the very fact that he’s in that position is proof that the rich are doing very well for themselves these days.
While we’re not expecting anyone to shed a tear over this guy’s situation either, it is fair to say for someone with kids in private school (a decision Salmon takes a sardonic swipe at) who wants to buy a house in the more expensive parts of Brownstone Brooklyn, $350,000 a year isn’t going to cut it unless he or she has quite a lot of money in the bank already. Of course anyone who makes significantly less than that is going to think the guy is a jerk for complaining, but it’s all relative.
Photo by Jay Woodworth
03/07/2012 10:01 AM
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Downtown School Trying to Spurn P.S. 8′s Advances
In this town, everything comes back to real estate, even schools. Tensions can run particularly high when public and charter schools with strong track records and involved parents seek to expand by moving in on unused turf at schools where the student body has been shrinking. Just witness last year’s heated battle between the well-funded Arts & Letters and the less stable P.S. 20 in Fort Greene. A similar scenario is now playing out in Downtown Brooklyn, where P.S. 8, an elementary school in Brooklyn Heights which has enjoyed surging popularity over the last decade and recently completed a physical expansion of its own, is making a play to launch a middle school at the Westinghouse and Polytechnic High School on Tillary Street which is less than 80 percent full. (Great building, by the way. It was a Building of the Day last month.) According to the Brooklyn Eagle, more than 30 P.S. 8 parents turned out on Monday night to express support for the plan. Council Member Steve Levin was also there to speak in favor: “The expansion into a middle school will mean that students from P.S. 8 will be able to continue their education at a local, quality public school.” Levin is joined in his support of the expansion by State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Joan Millman. Though everyone in the P.S. 8 crowd is saying the right things (we’re going to be good neighbors, this is not a take-over, etc.), parents of the vocational high school aren’t buying it. “I hear everyone talking about being a good neighbor,” said Khem Irby, first vice president of the District 13 Community Education Council. “A neighbor doesn’t live in your house.” She also warned that mixing middle school and high school students could be trouble: “High school students might be having sex in the hallways.” In addition to the obvious class and race tensions just barely below the surface, there’s also the conspiracy theory that city has been deliberately shrinking Westinghouse to make room for the P.S. 8 expansion.
P.S. 8 Middle School Plan Meets Westinghouse Resistance [Brooklyn Eagle]
02/08/2012 9:00 AM
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Checking in at Voorhees Hall’s Glassy Reno
Here’s a progress report on the glassing of CUNY’s Voorhees Hall. The process began last month and is part of a larger, $30 million building upgrade.
Voorhees Hall Getting Glassy [Brownstoner]
Exterior Transformation Underway at CUNY Building [Brownstoner]
02/07/2012 2:43 PM
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Voorhees Hall Getting Glassy
Last week we posted renderings for 186 Jay Street, CUNY’s Voorhees Hall, and here’s a shot of the in-progress exterior transformation of the building. Work on the facade is part of a larger, $30 million renovation that also covers classroom enhancements, a new lobby and other building upgrades. You can see more renderings of the building, which used to sport a brick facade, here.
Exterior Transformation Underway at CUNY Building [Brownstoner]
01/20/2012 2:42 PM
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Handsome Former School in Bed-Stuy is Sold Off
The NYC Partnership Housing Development Fund sold the former Catholic school at 180 Bainbridge Street to an entity called “Bainbridge Realty Holdings LLC” for $2.4 million. We featured the Bed-Stuy property as a Building of the Day last year, when local residents were trying to get it designated as an individual landmark and have the Partnership rehab it as housing. According to DOB records, the building has been calendered for landmarking. We didn’t hear back from the Partnership and couldn’t find any information on the firm that bought the building. Does anybody know what may be in store for it? Here’s hoping it doesn’t have a date with the wrecking ball. GMAP
01/20/2012 9:30 AM
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Exterior Transformation Underway at CUNY Building
CUNY’s Voorhees Hall, at 186 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, has been under renovation for a couple of years now, but recently signs went up announcing that the facade is being re-clad. The building, which used to be clad in brick, will soon be much glassier. The architect on the project, Der Scutt Architects, notes the following about 186 Jay’s new look: “The distinctive architectural curtainwall incorporates low-E energy-efficient glazing, and shadow boxes to add shade and visual interest in a grid that emphasizes the technology of the curtain wall. Window openings, which had been blocked off in a prior renovation, are to be re-opened to bring natural light to classrooms, offices, and laboratories. A trellis screen following the curtainwall motif unifies the uneven penthouse elevations and will be lighted at night.” The $30 million renovation also covers classroom enhancements, a new lobby and other building upgrades. Construction began way in the spring of 2010, and work is supposed to wrap this spring. Click through for more renderings! (more…)
01/11/2012 10:00 AM
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Politicians Rally for NYU’s Overhaul of 370 Jay Street
Yesterday a bunch of politicians held a rally in support of NYU’s proposal to build out a grad school at 370 Jay Street, the former MTA building in Downtown Brooklyn that’s been in sorry shape for years. The group, which included Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblywoman Joan Millman and Councilwoman Letitia James, said the city should allocate funds to the university as a runner-up winner in the competition Cornell was named the winner of earlier this week. Markowitz said that while Cornell’s plans to build a science center on Roosevelt Island are “wonderful,” according to the Daily News, “370 Jay Street is practically empty, doing nothing now but housing some switches.” Squadron noted that compared to Cornell’s plans, the NYU rehab of 370 Jay could be accomplished “for pennies on the dollar.” NYU is looking for $20-$25 million in city funding for the proposed grad center. Councilwoman James said Brooklyn should be about more than “basketball and burgers,” according to the Eagle, and that it should also be about “books and brains.” The mayor has said that funding for a proposal other than Cornell’s could be decided on within the next few weeks.
Rally Boosts Science Center At 370 Jay St [Eagle]
Brooklyn Pols Still Pushing for NYU Downtown Brooklyn Plan [NY Daily News]
NYU’s Plans for 370 Jay Street May Still Happen [Brownstoner]
12/22/2011 9:00 AM
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City Buys Lot for Planned Kensington School
The School Construction Authority recently purchased the empty lot at 701-11 Caton Avenue, between East 7th and 8th streets, where a new school is planned. According to public records, the SCA spent $8.8 million on the property. According to the Kensington Area Resident/Merchant Alliance’s blog, there was a public hearing in February for the proposed pre-K through 8th grade school and the school is likely in the design phase right now. Plans call for a 750-seat school that’s around 20,000 square feet. GMAP
Photo via Property Shark
12/21/2011 11:00 AM
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Cobble Hill Success Academy Charter School OK’d
Last night the Panel for Educational Policy approved the controversial plans to co-locate Success Academy Cobble Hill charter school at the school building on Baltic and Court streets. By all accounts there was a significant turnout of parents and educators opposed to the school. Nevertheless, Patch reports that 12 of the 13 members of the school panel voted in favor of Success Academy’s co-location. The Times story on the vote draws parallels between Cobble Hill and the Upper West Side, as some parents in the Manhattan neighborhood also mounted a vocal campaign against a Success Academy there: “Cobble Hill shares many similarities with the Upper West Side: It has desirable elementary schools at or near capacity, as well as million-dollar homes blocks from public housing developments. In an earlier interview, Ms. Moskowitz said her network, Success Academy Charter Schools, meant to serve both.” Another Success Academy was also approved for Bed-Stuy.
Charter School Approved for Affluent Brooklyn Enclave [NY Times]
PEP Approves Co-Location of Brooklyn Success Academy [Patch]
Brooklyn Success Academy Cobble Hill Charter School Approved [NY Daily News]
12/15/2011 9:00 AM
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deancollins
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM