Today is the first school day for the students at the Hannah Senesh School and the first day in their new location at 342 Smith Street. Over the last year and a half, the residents of Carroll Gardens have seen the old District 15 NYC Board Of Education building transform into a vision of blue, beige and orange. If the former building was a sad and drab brown brick building, this new version would be more at home in Disneyland than in a brownstone neighborhood. ( What was their architect thinking?)
What will be interesting to watch over the next few months is how the parents of the Hannah Senesh school will react to the controversial residential building designed by controversial architect Robert Scarano which will go up right next door at 360 Smith Street. After all, the school inhabits the same lot. The poor students attending classes in the building will have huge cranes overhead on most school days once construction starts. For months, there will be noise and dust. Lots of dust. It makes me wonder if the school will be able to use its newly added recreation yard on the roof. Big trucks will be idling in front of the place as dirt is carted away and material is being brought in. Not to speak of the mess of having the F Train subway plaza closed and demolished right next door.
Hannah Senesh is a private school with a hefty tuition. For the 2007-2008 school year, the cost is about $ 19,000-$20,000. A lot to pay for all this inconvenience if you ask me. It makes me wonder if the parents knew beforehand that Junior will be sitting in his classroom listening to big pilings being hammered into the ground just feet away. The parents may want to reach out to C.O.R.D. , the neighborhood group fighting the building at 360 Smith. I hope that they will help to force Scarano to follow the building rules and codes for once in his life. It will be interesting to watch.
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7 comments:
ugly school.
finally started blogging again due to sophia's encouragement. come visit.
the building looks nice for a school, but I agree, does not work well with the brownstones...
Yes, the school would be fine standing alone someplace in Florida, under palm trees, but it looks a it like "designing by committee." Too many colors, too many materials, in short too much.
The school is fine. Fresh and new and considering the nothingness of the immediate surroundings, it's fine. If anything it compliments. It doesn't tower over. It's not a Scarno, it's fine. And I don't see any nyc funds building new, clean schools. With the exception of Stuyvessant.
Reading this horrible article offended me deeply. I attended this school for about six years, and had an amazing experience getting to know everyone in the school, from the Kindergardeners up to the eight-graders and every single teacher. I graduated from the school a year before we got to move into our new building. Everyone in the school has worked hard trying to make it the best it can possibly be. But then more towards the end of the of the building event, a dear friend of mine's father was seriously ill and was put into the HOSPITAL right away, he was the President of our school. A few days later he died. The little girl and her mother were not the only one's morning over the pain of the loss. We are a community and the way our building looks does not matter. You cannot judge our school and community, on the way our school looks. Because we have all been through a lot and are finally at a resting spot.
Please, all I ask of everyone is to please NOT judge something before you know the whole story.
Thank you,
Lauren, 14
Hi Lauren,
Thank you so much for your comment. I am glad that you told me how my comments about the outside of the school make you feel and I am sorry that I have offended you. I did not mean to do so.
I am sure that your school community is just lovely. I am also happy that Hannah Senesh has found a great home that is big enough for the school to thrive in the future.
When I wrote about the choice of colors, I was simply pointing out that I was sorry that the architect who designed the outside did not try to make it blend into the neighborhood just a bit better by choosing more muted colors.
But that is a matter of taste and certainly, as you said, does not reflect the wonderful kids and teachers of Hannah Senesh.
Thanks for telling me something of the background of the school. I know that a lot of people put a lot of effort and work into making it a great place to learn.
I'm so sorry that I didn't stumble upon this post much earlier. Why does the poster have to be such a downer? 14 year old Lauren's post is an example of the kind of student this school produces. Can you put a price tag on bringing out the very best in a child? I am a parent who not only experienced the construction next door, but was active on the PA board. Not a single parent complained about anything that Ms. Kelly was so sure was going to happen. Our parents are a community with a common goal. Our families have endured a lot worse than noise and dust to enable the learning we feel is so important. Ms. Kelly has the right to say whatever she wants, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond. But I think that if Ms. Kelly herself had access to a quality Hannah Senesh education, she may have had a positive contribution to make rather than this negative one.
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