New York Avenue School

Bold colors, interesting shapes and purposeful patterns make New York Avenue School a very cool building. High-performance, exterior coatings on industrial metal panels allowed the building to fit into a constricted budget.
Building on the blue and gold school colors, the graphics help the teaching and learning process—especially for the school’s youngest inhabitants: kindergarten, first- and second-graders.
Yellow circles on the floors and walls lead the way to building exits—the school’s own “yellow brick road”—in case of emergency. Corridors are flooded with light through extra-wide stair door panels.
Every floor is color-coded. The first floor (K to 2) has the darkest blue colors to achieve the greatest contrast for younger children. The third floor is light blue with accents to create a more calming effect for the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
Visual separation is fostered among younger children and older students. The younger children are instructed to stay on the solid blue floor, reinforced by a lower ceiling and separated by columns.
A stepped, carpeted presentation recess off the first-floor corridor is used for small class presentations and group study.
A separate K-2 section is carved out of the instructional media center with a stepped, storytelling area and scaled-down entrance passage.

“Bold and invigorating.”–2006 jury

Additional Information

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