Stephen Gaynor School Annex (New York City, New York)

 school, ballet school

150-foot, 12-story postmodern school completed in 2006. Designed by Rogers Marvel, the building houses both The Stephen Gaynor School and Ballet Hispanico - existing, separate institutions that collaborated on the commission of a new building for both. The tower houses the Lower School, while on the opposite side of the block, on 89th Street, the former Claremont Riding Academy houses the Early Childhood and Middle School, as well as part of the Ballet Hispanico. The top three floors of the modern building on 90th Street contain Ballet Hispanico space, with the lower floors serving the school.

The front facade is clad in red brick, brown metal panels, and exposed structural concrete.The ground floor has a metal section with two service doors at the east end, followed by the main entrance, framed in concrete, with metal-and-glass double-doors and sidelights, with a concrete canopy overhead. A wider brick section to the right has a vertical window connected by a short, narrow glass pane at the top to a shorter, horizontal window; a meta band across the top of the windows has lettering spelling "STEPHEN GAYNOR SCHOOL". At the west end is another metal section with two more service doors.

The next few floors are clad in metal panels. The 2nd floor has a wide band of windows with a shorter bay at the east end. These short windows are repeated at the east end of the 3rd & 4th floors, with taller bands extending across the main entrance below. The west part of the facade at these levels has an enormous, double-height square window that angles out at the top, flooding light into the library space within. There is also a small single-window at the west end of the 3rd floor. While the window bands continue on the 4th & 5th floors on the east end, there is a large, recessed open area above the library window, partially covered by a concrete roof. The rest of the building is set back behind it, clad in brick, with concrete along the east end. A few of the floors have bands of windows spanning the center section, with some double-windows mostly to the left. At the east end, the vertical concrete column extends up past the rest of the roof line, and then extends over to the right, capping the east half of the facade.

The rear, south-facing facade is clad in brighter, lighter-red brick, with three bands of windows at the upper floors on the west side, and various smaller windows on the east. Below, the floors devolve into a random assortment of windows in various sizes and shapes. A low-rise section spills from the main tower, extending to the south and connecting with the school's older building on 89th Street.

The Stephen Gaynor School is a private elementary and middle school for children with learning difficulties. It was founded in 1962 by Dr. Miriam Michael, a psychologist, and Yvette Siegel-Herzog, an educator – who met as students at New York University.