By COLlive reporter
Bais Rivkah, the flagship Chabad girls’ school, has released plans for a new 12 story building, an extension of the original building on 470 Lefferts Avenue in Crown Heights.
New York architecture firm ODA has released visuals of the building, featuring schools, sports facilities and offices stacked on top of each other, Dezeen.com reported.
The project, which is estimated at the cost of approximately $50 Million, is being coordinated by the school’s new Board of Directors, COLlive was told.
The building features a 12-story cube with voids cut into it and spherical play spaces for pre-school children.
“Our design is guided by the principle that the cube is the most compact shape,” said ODA, adding that each stacked element of the project has its own distinct form.
“The stacked campus leverages the benefits of a dense footprint, while addressing the shortfalls of vertical build,” it said. “To ensure usability, every element stands on its own merits and could function independently in a traditional horizontal composition.”
The 213,000-square-feet (19,788-square-metre) project incorporates a high school and a pre-school plus fitness and community areas. A rooftop garden that doubles as a playground completes the structure, other, Dezeen.com wrote.
A glazed high school sits above the street-level podium. Above this is the community sports centre, which is clad in steel mesh. A glazed pre-school sits above this. Various outdoor spaces have been cut into the volume while two of the spherical play rooms are visible from the street.
The high school features a central atrium with an oval-shaped stairway leading to classrooms, a dining hall, administrative rooms, library, labs, video room and an art room.
A separate street entrance gives access to elevators leading to the upper pre-school levels, which feature classrooms, a cafeteria, a music room, a therapy room and private offices.
Here, the four “spheres of play” are designed for learning in an informal setting while natural light floods a triple-height atrium on the with pops of pink and a glazed roof. Stairwells and walkways offer views into the open-plan spaces.
Community facilities are located between the high school and pre-school elements. Amenities here include an indoor swimming pool, a solarium, gym, dance studio and locker rooms. An auditorium and two floors of private offices for rent complete this section.
LOOKS MORE LIKE A MUSEUM
Where are they coming up with $50 Million from?
This is such great news!!!
I like to see people dream, now let’s see them making It a reality… almost as fast as ohalei Torah expansion?
they have expended into the Two apartment Buildings next Door, only Visible from the inside
Looks great, legally a preschool cannot be above the third floor
If you look in the last picture you can see that by every classroom door is an animal lit up. Most of them are non-kosher and I hope this is not overlooked. As Chabad chassidim, the emphasized the importance of everything that our children see. Shkoyach
you have an amazing eyesight and was able to dedect such a small detail there. I did no even realized. 100/100 vision!
detail oriented.
Very strange looking and not suited to the space. Why are we doing this? Rumors say that there are those looking to sell the building and land on Crown Street to developers and use that money to develop this project.
Who is going to profit from this project?
I see two main issues with the design(there are lots more).
1- Having kids take an elevator is a bad idea.
2- I don’t like the open air concept with half walls in a school in between floors.
Agreed. Kids will be leaning over those railings all the time, could ch”v be extremely dangerous. And some kids are terrified of elevators – are they supposed to climb 10 flights of stairs every day? In addition, in case of fire having to lead preschoolers down all those stairs is a phenomenally bad idea. Did it not occur to anyone to put the high schoolers up there and keep the preschool at street level?!
Strange layout with swimmimg pool and dance area way up inside building. For security reasons with outside school personnel participating in using sports areas this mingling with students etc. makes little sense. That area should have separate entrance and be on ground floor. Looks like there are areas of wasted space and in general design not suited for purpose. Architecture should be redesigned with input of CH population.
Hatzlocha rabba, great initiative. Hope you get to use some of the space to cater to the less ‘standard’ girls
👍
for this you need space in your heart and to follow the Rebbe’s directives of what Chinuch is meant to be, and this can be done without compromising Yiddishkeit. A lot of the curriculum can be changed towards allowing this to happen.
and the methods of teachings, not easy for lots of kids to be so many hours in a desk
we need to also put lots of focus on helping our children to love Yiddishkeit
beautiful design
We need to have not only of physical nice building but Strong Jews Future Generations, Jewish Education must be free and available for all kids and the school need to be run on donations only and maybe on government money too. So it’s good idea to have offices that will pay off the building maintace and community area that will benefit all.
Thanks and yes school can’t run on elevators due to the safety plans, but who knows what is the technology in this building will be …
Elevators?? Twelve storeys? In a school?? And the $50m price tag?? I prob have no business joining this discussion as it’s obviously the result of hundreds of hours of meetings and input but please allow me to voice my concerns about the elevator (for starters) What were to happen in the event of a fire Gd forbid? Or some other emergency? And if the elevators get jammed at any time? Doesn’t bear thinking about. Re the price tag, I sincerely hope that every single teacher and rebbe in all the neighborhood schools will have their salaries paid on time each… Read more »
I don’t see how this building can become a reality, after all, the zoning laws in crown hights only let up to six floor buildings
It’s a beautiful looking building, but before anyone spends money on it, I’d like to see that same 50 million dollars put into some kind of secure financial vehicle that will be at no risk of depleting, and used ONLY for teachers’ salaries. I am shocked that anyone would think of building a new building again, before the teachers’ salaries are provided for. If, after that, there is more money available to build, then kol hakovod. They should also re-think all of the safety issues in the design plan, and the spiritual safety issue, and revamp it and then, after… Read more »