Serviam Heights is a combination of new construction with adaptive reuse on an expansive sloped site on the campus of Mount Saint Ursula.
The existing convent was reconfigured to provide studio units and the chapel was converted into a community space. Together with a large new construction, the project brings 187 units of affordable, independent, senior apartments to the Bronx.
This project combines the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Our Lady of Lourdes convent with two new construction buildings. The three-building complex provides 76 units of affordable one to three-bedroom apartments in Brooklyn.
Each building is designed to Passive House standards, which means very low energy consumption and therefore energy costs. In addition to high efficiency throughout, the complex produces its own energy through a rooftop PV panel system.
Sitting at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, the newly constructed Water Street Condominiums were 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. The project created 13 luxury condominiums with spacious terraces and on-site parking.
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.
Serviam Gardens blends new construction with the renovation and adaptive reuse of an existing convent on the campus of Mount Saint Ursula. The three-building complex brings 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.
Located in Bushwick, the EBC High School was built within the shell of a former vaudeville theater. The building’s adaptive reuse resulted in a new 60,000 square foot school for 800 students.
In addition to classrooms the program included:
– science and art labs
– a gymnasium
– an auditorium
– a darkroom facility
– a guidance suite
– administrative offices
In late 1990s, OCV converted what was once an 80,000 square foot factory in Brooklyn 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. The school’s science labs, library, gymnasium, cafeteria and kitchen were also designed to fit into and work with the existing historic structure.
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.
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.
This project entailed the historic restoration and adaptive reuse of a former bank headquarters into a prep school for students grades K-8. The building was once the Lee, Higginson and Company Bank headquarters in the heart of New York’s financial district.
Highlights of its conversion include a new Olympic length swimming pool and regulation-size rooftop gym and outdoor playground.
In 2006, the New York State Historic Preservation Office awarded OCV with the Private Sector Achievement Award for this project.
