earl monroe charter school

What the client wanted

NBA Great Earl “The Pearl” Monroe once said “A book and a ball can change the world.” This quote is the slogan for Earl Monroe High School, a charter school in the Bronx that specializes in Basketball Development. Students here are encouraged to be both scholars and athletes, bringing the virtues they learned on the court into the classroom and vice versa.

We were honoured when the developer of Earl Monroe High School tapped us to design their facilities.

The challenges we faced

The client wanted the basketball court to be positioned near the entrance to the building. This required some creative problem-solving solving as most of the schools we design in New York City place the gym on the top floor.

This specification made it harder to design an efficient floor plan without too many staircases or wasted space. It took a number of drafts to get it just right.

There was another quite interesting challenge we encountered during demolition. An original Banksy artwork was discovered on the side of the existing building. We worked with specialists to remove the mural intact before demolishing the rest of the wall.

How we overcame the challenges

We overhauled the floor plan to one that centers on a large staircase in the middle of the building. This allowed us to free up space, especially on the upper floors, for classrooms along the exteriors of the buildings. (A truism is that nothing is more important for classrooms than windows).

In the end, we are happy with how the spaces flow. This is important with any project, but in schools especially, it is critical that the layout is intuitive for students to navigate.