One more thing megaproject Riverside Center will bring to the UWS (besides hundreds of apartments, office space, a megagarage, an auto dealership, and a movie theater) is the neighborhood's first new school in decades. Plans will be unveiled this evening for the brand new PS/IS 342 K-8th grade school that will be located on the fourth floor of a residential tower and accommodate an estimated 488 students, but DNAinfo has an early glimpse at a rendering, shown above. Other schools have opened as entities within existing school buildings in recent years, but the new school on West End Avenue between 60th and 61st Streets will be the first brand spanking new one in ages.
Project developer Extell agreed to build the core (walls, roof, HVAC, and electrical) of PS/IS 342 after some tough negotiating during the public review process. The School Construction Authority will foot the bill for the rest of the school building. The present 150,000 square foot design is double Extell's initial 75,000 proposal. The capacity of 488 students is much lower, however, than the 1,250-student capacity that neighborhood parents wanted. The school is scheduled to open in 2015.
· Plans Reveal Upper West Side's First New School Building in Decades [DNAinfo]
· Riverside Center Coverage [Curbed]
· Schools, Not Size, Now The Sticking Point at Riverside Center [Curbed]