Urbahn Architects, BelovED Charter High School, Jersey City, NJ
Type of project: New Charter High School
Size: 53,000 s/f
The new four-story high school will serve students in grades 9 to 12. 20 full-sized classrooms, 4 half-classrooms, a gymnasium, a multi-purpose room, and a large cafetorium are located on higher floors. 360 students will attend the school. Due to the small, half-acre size of the site, Urbahn had to be particularly creative in developing and maximizing a functional program. The parcel is within a FEMA-designated flood zone, so Urbahn specified all programmed space and critical systems on the second through fourth floors. The ground level is dedicated to parking, building access, and recreation. The upper floors are structurally cantilevered above the parking lot.
Why was this particular job your favorite/most unusual?
BelovED Charter School serves students from underserved sections of Jersey City, which made this project very satisfying. Although designed to be built within a limited budget, the school features excellent educational facilities, including 18 comfortable classrooms, laboratories, a large gymnasium, and even an elevated Ecology Deck – an outdoors ecology and biology teaching space, where students will perform experiments with plants and observe various microenvironments.
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