The ambitious environmental agenda of a new elementary school by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) on Staten Island, New York, is obvious from the first encounter: almost 1,600 photovoltaic (PV) panels cloak the 68,000-sqare-foot, two-story structure, covering the south facade, extending over its roof, and cantilevering out to float above a playing field.
How do you give civic scale and stature to a mid-rise school in a high-rise context? This was one of the challenges faced by bKL Architecture in designing the new lower school of GEMS World Academy in Chicago.