Learningspring School (New York City, New York)

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8-story modernist elementary school completed in 2009. Designed by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, the building is draped with an aluminum and stainless-steel sunscreen supported by an external steel armature, to protect the façades of the building from the unobstructed southeast exposure to the sun, and to provide a valuable visual buffer from the busy intersection. Behind is an aluminum, glass, and zinc curtain wall. Flanking the adjacent buildings to the north and west and extending along the base of the building is a terracotta rainscreen. Between the two systems is a vertical band of tubular channel glass marking important circulation spaces within.

The main entrance is near the west end on 20th Street, with two sets of metal-framed glass double-doors below steel lettering spelling out the name of the school. To the left on the terra-cotta section at the west end is a metal logo of the tree, if the form of a tree. There are double-windows in this terra-cotta section on the upper floors. At the southeast corner of the building some of the metal framing members for the sunscreen wrap around the corner windows. There is another logo at the ground floor at the north end of the east facade on the avenue. This north section is only three stories high, and has a glass-and-metal curtain wall above the ground floor, with a metal screen above the 3rd floor enclosing a terrace space. Rising above the terrace, the upper floors on the north elevation are clad in terra-cotta and have a band of windows at each end.

Founded in 2001 by a parent group, the LearningSpring School is a 108-student K through 8th grade private day school for children diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Higher-occupancy spaces, including the gymnasium, library, and lunchroom, as well as administrative functions, are located on the bottom two floors where the floor plates are the largest. Of the six upper stories, two are for lower school classrooms, two are for shared therapy and special education spaces, and two are for the upper classrooms.