The good news: Guttenberg is getting a recreation center after years without one, and the Anna L. Klein School is getting a much-needed addition to alleviate overcrowding and increase resources. It will be a shared-usage facility directly adjacent to the existing school building, and will be available for classes during weekdays and open to the public on nights and weekends.
The bad news: It won’t be open until January 2017, and until then, the neighborhood will be subject to the woes of major construction.
But Mayor Gerald Drasheff assured the community at a public meeting that the long-term gain is well worth the short-term pain.
School Superintendent Michelle Rosenberg enthusiastically agreed. “We’re going to be gaining 12 classrooms including two state-of-the-art science labs and a STEM lab,” she said, “which is amazing for our kids because currently we do not have science labs that have running water and gas. Our kids are not really able to do what students do in other schools based on the fact that we don’t have the equipment.”
Rooms in the existing building will be renovated and a new art room will be created by combining two smaller classrooms. The new building will serve as a de facto middle school, allowing for reduced class sizes. The basement will house a gym and performance stage, and the roof will be an outdoor park. Existing trailers will be removed and new basketball courts installed in their place.
“It’s going to be a great benefit for our community,” said Rosenberg. “More people will want to move here to send their kids to this school, which is already great but will be even better when we have all this equipment.”
A large, ADA accessible leisure space will be constructed on the ground floor as a reading room that will be open during the day.
“We’re going to be gaining 12 classrooms including two state-of-the-art science labs and a STEM lab.” –School Superintendent Michelle Rosenberg
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10 years, three mayors
The project has been in the planning stages for almost a decade. “It went through three mayors,” said Drasheff. “I happen to be the one that’s sitting in the seat when we get it up out of the ground, but it’s been a long time coming and it was a big effort.”
A previous rec center on 71st Street was demolished and turned into a parking lot about 10 years ago. The town had the option of rebuilding that facility or creating a new one. “This made more sense because we get more bang for our buck,” said Drasheff. “It can’t be in a better location; it’s right in the heart of the town. Everybody can walk to it, and this was the right place to do it.”
Plus there’s the benefit of getting double usage from the space, using it for the school as well as a rec center.
But with that benefit came drawbacks. The school already owned two lots on the adjoining property. The town bought a third lot at the corner of Hudson and 68th Street, using the county’s Open Space Trust Fund.
“One of the reasons it’s taken us so long is because to get two government bodies to agree on how you’re going to do something is always tough,” said Drasheff. “The state hadn’t seen anything like this because it’s truly a shared facility. The ground is owned by two different groups. The building’s being built by the town but it’s going to be used all day, Monday to Friday, as a school. They weren’t used to seeing that. It took a lot of persuading to get them to agree that this was a project that they could fund.”
State Development Authority Funds were available because it will be a school, and additional funding was secured in part by creating the green space on the roof and including a public performance stage.
The architects and construction managers planned the new facility with detailed input from the town and school. The new structure will be a three-story red brick building with a limestone base, to tie in with the existing school and the neighborhood. A partial curved wall of anodized aluminum will add a modern feel, with open windows at ground level facing the gym and reading room.
“These windowsills are low enough that you’ll actually be able to look down and see what’s going on in the school,” said Jeffrey Curry, senior project manager for the designer, Di Cara / Rubino Architects, “whether it’s a basketball game or a performance or a party or a community theater. It will really make that connection to the community – it won’t just be isolated behind brick walls. People can know what’s going on in the school and see what’s happening there and hopefully come and join.”
Four phases through 2017
The project is scheduled to be built in four phases. Already the lot has been cleared and fenced off. Phase one is the construction of the building itself, to run through January 2017. Phase two includes basement and first floor renovations in the existing school, which will take place this summer. Phase three is the second and third floor renovations in the school, scheduled for summer 2016. And phase four will see the connection between the old building and the new. That will take place as early as possible but no later than January 2017.
Members of the public raised a number of concerns about the construction, chief among them the possibility of using blasting to remove the rock necessary to build the foundation for the new building. Earlier blasting in the area had already caused damage to nearby homes.
“One of the issues is this rock is one of the densest in the world,” said Will Nixon of MAST Construction Services, Inc. “Right now we have in our specifications that the contractor would drill or chip” to remove the existing rock. However, the contractor has the option to blast at their own discretion if he meets certain strict regulations.
“We’re going to do everything we can to mitigate any damage,” said Nixon, including closely monitoring any blasting for cause and effect.
In addition, prior to any blasting the contractor would be required to visit every home within 1,000 square feet and document the existing conditions with photographs and video. The contractor would then be responsible for any claims resulting from the blasting.
Parking in the area was another cause for concern among local residents. Already some spaces have been taken away due to construction, and the long-term presence of large cranes will no doubt impact the area as well.
“We all know parking in this town is a big, big problem,” said Drasheff. “We’re going to do what we can to try and address it.”
That includes possibly changing some parallel parking spots to angled parking to increase the number of available spots. Some spots near the construction may be made available for overnight parking, although they will be restricted during working hours.
Another option is to use the new basketball courts for temporary parking during events at the shared space.
During the construction period, workers will park in a designated area in James J. Braddock Park and be shuttled to the site to avoid bringing additional vehicles into the area unnecessarily.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.