Serviam Heights is a combination of new construction with adaptive reuse. Located on the campus of Mount Saint Ursula, the project renovated and adaptively reused the chapel and convent. Together with a large new construction, it brings 187 units of affordable, independent, senior apartments to the Bronx.
The expansive sloped site provided opportunities for multiple terraced outdoor areas for seniors to garden, exercise, barbecue and gather.
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, 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.
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.
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 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, 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.
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.
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.
