March 23, 2017
As colleges, universities, and public schools seek to expand their footprints, DeSimone Consulting Engineers, a top structural engineering firm with offices worldwide, has emerged as a leader in the design of schools in New York and beyond, working on some of the most complex and innovative educational facilities in the region.
DeSimone has played an integral role in the development of education facilities, helping developers, architects, and education officials find creative solutions to unique challenges and needs. Facilities the firm has designed include: Kean University Multi Purpose Academic Building; P.S. 62 – The Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability; PS 315Q; Columbia University Medical Center School of Nursing; The New School University Center; High School of Art and Design / PS 59; The Ramaz School; and KIPP Charter High School.
P.S. 62 – The Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability, which received the prestigious 2016 American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) Committee on the Environment Award, was the city’s first net-zero energy school. The remarkable campus produces the same amount of energy as it consumes by utilizing energy-efficient lighting textures, low-energy kitchen equipment, a greenhouse and vegetable garden, a geo-exchange system, a solar thermal system for hot water, and other cutting-edge, sustainable technologies.
In addition, DeSimone has provided structural engineering for Kean University Green Lane Building; Yale University Health Center; Princeton University’s Lewis Library; Columbia University Faculty Residence & School for Children; Brooklyn Law School Residence Hall; the Fisher Center at Bard College; the NYU Child Study Center; St. Bernard’s School; NYU Cancer Center; and the addition to the Brooklyn Law School Library.
“Educational facilities often entail unique challenges, especially in New York, where space, timing and budget can create significant hurdles,” said Stephen DeSimone, Chief Executive of DeSimone Consulting Engineers. “We have found that innovative and imaginative engineering can help to make complex projects feasible.”
The LEED-certified and award-winning New School University Center, designed by SOM had to serve as both a dormitory and academic programming space. To achieve this, DeSimone Consulting Engineers developed a complex structural transfer system at the interface of the two distinctly different spaces under the same roof.
In collaboration with SOM and New York City’s Department of Education, DeSimone also designed a soaring residential building with two base-building high schools on the site of the former High School of Art and Design / PS 59 in Midtown. This unique private/public partnership, along with the ingenuity and expertise of DeSimone, allowed for two new schools and a new residential tower to be constructed without ever displacing student activities.