UPPER EAST SIDE — The Allen-Stevenson school for boys is seeking the community's approval to demolish two 150-year-old townhouses in order to build more space for classrooms and a greenhouse, officials said.
The K-9 school, which serves more than 400 students, is looking to continue a renovation it began in 2004 that would make room for its students' growing academic needs, according to school officials.
If the proposal is approved, most of the school's two townhouses at 126 and 128 E. 78th St. would be demolished, aside from their facades and foundations, which would remain intact, plans show.
The new buildings — which are both in the Upper East Side Historic District — will provide space for three additional rooms for the school's visual arts program, two more science labs, a wrestling room and gym for younger boys, and a new administrative office suite, according to its application with the Board of Standards and Appeals.
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The building at 128 E. 78th St. is already being used by the school for an art room, administrative offices, classrooms and lockers, and the townhouse at 126 is empty, according to the school.
Both will be built to align with the school's main building next door at 132 E. 78th Street. The building's will be connected, but their heights will differ, plans show.
The townhouses would both be built up to 66 feet tall, or 6 feet taller than what the zoning currently allows, which is why the school needs zoning approval from the BSA, according to the school’s land use attorney, Shelly Friedman.
The townhouses at 126 and 128 E. 78th St. are currently 54 and 63 feet tall, respectively. Both buildings were built in 1866, 50 years before the city adopted its first zoning restrictions and established height limits, according to school officials.
The school is also planning to install a new 380-square-foot greenhouse on the roof of the new buildings. The greenhouse will add another 18 feet to the buildings' height, according to the plans.
And behind 126 E. 78th St., a 23-foot-tall multi-purpose dance studio will be built as well.
Kliment Halsband Architects is the design team on record.
On Jan. 13, the Landmarks Preservation Committee, with the support of Community Board 8, approved the school’s plans to expand its main building at 130-134 E. 78th St. by 36 feet, from 80 feet to 116 feet tall, to create space for a new regulation-size gym on the top floor with a covered outdoor play space, Friedman said.
Its current gym will be repurposed to have a climbing wall, new cardio equipment and offices, according to the school's website.
In a letter to the BSA, school officials said the expansion is necessary to the school's mission.
"The Allen-Stevenson School is at a pivotal moment in its history," the school said in a statement. "[The School] will have more appropriately and better located facilities to support its traditionally strong programs of academics, visual and performing arts, science, and tech, as well as four on-campus spaces dedicated to physical education and athletics."
Officials said there are no plans to increase enrollment.
Work on the inside of the school’s main building will likely begin in summer 2016, Friedman said. He did not know when construction of the two new buildings is expected to start.
Community Board 8’s public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 18, will cover the school’s request to increase the height of its townhouses. The school must gain final approval from the city’s Department of Buildings and the BSA, which will review the plans at the beginning of 2016, according to Friedman.
