PS 51 The Elias Howe School (New York City, New York)

 school, 2011_construction

5-story postmodern school building in 2011. Designed by SCLE, it was built as a part of the large Gotham West development surrounding it. The school serves 640 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five and special education. In addition to classrooms, it has a music room, art room, and science labs, a cafeteria and kitchen, library, rooftop playground, street-level playground and two gymnasiums, including one that is also used as an auditorium.

The facade is clad in reddish-orange brick and beige brick. The lower two floors are reddish-orange, as well as the full height of the facade at the east end. The main entrance is near the east end, with two sets of recessed glass-and-metal double-doors; to the right is a wall of glass blocks at the ground floor. Above, the 2nd floor has a large metal vent. At the 4th-5th floors the middle of the east end has a glass-and-metal curtain wall section, with metal louvers in the spandrels, and to the left is a 2-story opening with a metal screen.

Farther west, a vertical band of beige metal and a narrower curtain-wall window bay divides the east part of the facade from the rest, which has beige brick at the 3rd-5th floors. Each floor has a high, very narrow band of windows, expanding into full-size window bands at the west half of the facade. The lower two floors also have window bands corresponding to those above, but without the narrow part at the east end. Additionally, the 2nd floor's is interrupted by four sets of beige metal-panel piers sets at angles. The wall of the ground floor extends past the west end of the building, with a gate opening to a corridor back to the school's playground.