Community – OCV Architects

Binghamton YWCA

The Binghamton YWCA turned to OCV for our expertise in supportive housing, historical preservation, and gut rehabs when they needed a partner to transform their run-down historical home into a modern, multi-use building. Additional challenges included assisting the client in attaining funding sources and an atypical infrastructure revealed only during demolition.

The project completely reconfigured and converted existing dorm-style housing into individual apartments outfitted with new bathrooms and full kitchens, nearly doubling the number of women and children served.

In 2009, the YWCA Binghamton was awarded ‘Outstanding Residence of the Year’ by the Supportive Housing Network of New York.

EBC High School for Public Service

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

Aaron School

The Aaron School is Midtown Manhattan’s premier preschool for children with special needs. The 22,500 square foot space is designed for many levels of one-on-one and group interaction.

To lend a peaceful environment for comfort and concentration the school utilizes:
– natural light at every opportunity
– low glare fixtures and soothing colors
– special non-toxic finishes

ACORN Community High School

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.

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.

Saint Teresa’s Church

Saint Teresa’s Church was originally built in 1841 and nearly closed after a ceiling collapse in 1997. OCV was brought in to historically restore and renovate the English, Spanish and Chinese-speaking parish.

The rough timber trusses and ashlar stone walls were exposed by the disaster. The architects made them assets in the rebuilding of the sanctuary by leaving them exposed. Elements of the destroyed altar were transformed into a new altar, baptismal altar and other decorative elements.

Aaron Academy

This project for a private, special education school in midtown Manhattan involved the conversion and programmatic expansion of an administrative floor in the school for academic use.

The expansion addressed the school’s mission of integrating social, physical, artistic and academic instruction through flexible rooms.

Claremont Prep School

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.

Smilow Clubhouse

Smilow Clubhouse is a Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx. Its renovation included an overhaul of the gymnasium and fitness room, and the conversion of a stage area into a dance studio.