Serviam Heights combines and connects a large new construction with a chapel and the adaptive re-use of a convent on the campus of Mount Saint Ursula to bring 187 units of affordable, independent, senior apartments to the Bronx. The expansive sloped site allowed OCV to create multiple terraced outdoor areas for seniors to garden, exercise, barbecue and gather.
Filter: Adaptive Reuse
Our Lady of Lourdes Apartments
With this landmark project OCV introduces a three-building Passive House designed complex that creates 76 units of highly efficient, affordable one to three-bedroom apartments.
The project combines the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Our Lady of Lourdes convent with two new buildings, each meeting the low energy use standards of Passive House as well as producing its own energy through a rooftop PV panel system.
Water Street Condominiums
Sitting at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, this new construction was recreated to resemble the Landmarked 19th century warehouse that occupied this Fulton Ferry Historic District site.
The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission-approved historic facade was rebuilt while a conversion added a three-story stacked addition to the rear of the building, making room for 13, 2+ bedroom luxury condos with spacious terraces.
Cornerstone Residence
The Cornerstone Residence is the site of a 104,000 s.f., seven contiguous building, historic complex within the resurging city center of Newburgh, NY. OCV’s challenge here was the successful integration of a vast mixed-use program, including supportive housing, 12 artist’s lofts with adjacent studio space, a theater, and retail and commercial spaces, into a cohesive development within the city’s historic context.
In 2007, the Cornerstone was awarded ‘Outstanding Residence of the Year’ by the Supportive Housing Network of New York.
Anna Gonzalez Apartments
The rehabilitation that created Anna Gonzalez Apartments transformed an abandoned four-story furniture warehouse and joined it to a five-story new construction addition, creating 99 units of affordable and supportive housing for low-income and formerly homeless individuals exiting the City’s shelter system.
The project was created in large part to meet the needs of those requiring ongoing supportive services, such as in the case of mental illness, chemical addiction or HIV/AIDS, and includes ground floor commercial space, on-site case management, community rooms, and a back patio and garden.
Serviam Gardens
Serviam Gardens blends new construction with the renovation and adaptive reuse of an existing convent on the campus of Mount Saint Ursula to bring affordable, independent, senior living to the Bronx.
As part of the Green Communities Program, Serviam Gardens was designed with built-in sustainability, such as surface water management, water conservation, energy efficiency and a healthy living environment.
In 2012 it received an Honor Award in Collaborative Design from the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
EBC High School for Public Service
Located in Bushwick, this high school for 800 students was built within the shell of a former vaudeville theater for the New York City Board of Education.
Included in the program for this new 60,000 square foot school were classrooms, science and art labs, a gymnasium, auditorium, a darkroom facility, guidance suite, and administrative offices.
Acorn Community High School
OCV converted this 80,000 square foot former factory into a high school for 800 students.
The design of classrooms took advantage of existing large industrial windows to fill the school with natural light. Science labs, a library, gymnasium, cafeteria and kitchen were also designed to fit into and work with the existing historic structure.
Montclare Children’s School
Prior to being adapted from a CVS drugstore to a preschool, this Landmarked Beaux Arts building originally served as a bank. The 20,000 square foot space was converted to a new multi-level private preschool on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Today, the vaulted entrance hall of the Montclare (previously Claremont) Children’s School provides an abundance of space for children to play and interact.
ACORN High School for Social Justice
This adaptive reuse of a former vaudeville theater saw a new six-story steel and concrete structure inserted within the theater’s original masonry walls to house a high school whose academic focus is social justice and change.
Among the unique retrofits to the building, a gymnasium was inserted into the former theater’s flyspace, while the ornate stone and terra cotta exterior was restored to its former glory.