☞ INTRODUCING: New Village Academy Proceeds

There was news this past June that Harlem Village Academy will be taking over the old ConEd lot at West 125th Street (between Lenox and 5th Avenue): LINK. We walked by the building this weekend and it looks like the early part of demolition will be proceeding sometimes in the next month seeing that scaffolding has started to be placed out front (top photo). Based on DOB paperwork, all permits are in place and the new 5 story building will be rising at 32 West 125th Street in the near future. Harlem Village Academy is one of three main charter schools making major waves in the education field uptown and the this most recent branch just received $42 million in funding from the city's school construction authority. The other expanding charters include the Harlem Children's Zone and Harlem Success Academy.

☞ REVIVE: Harlem Village Academy Tops Off

Harlem Village Academy's new school at 32 West 125th Street appears to have topped off since we last posted on it back in March: LINK. Demolition of the old Con Ed building started about a year ago and the new charter school building that will  also have an entrance on the north side of Marcus Garvey Park has now passed a major milestone. Harlem Village Academy, Harlem Children's Zone and Harlem Success Academy are notably the most high performing charters in the city but even more lawsuits have come about in reference to the general expansion of this type of public school.  This time around,  the controversy has apparently become a race issue: LINK

☞ ARCHITECTURE: The Harlem Village Academy

We received a couple of tips this week that answered the big question on what was going on at the lot between 5th Avenue and Mount Morris Park West (at the northwest side of Marcus Garvey Park).   The ground work apparently started for the development at number 27-29 West 124th Street but DOB files do not indicate any applications.  It turns out that this is the back end of the new Harlem Village Academy charter school so the work would coincide with the front of the lot which faces 32 West 125th Street at the location of the old ConEd building: LINK.  

At top, one can see the construction in between the two buildings have started and the following image is the final sketch of the new building (click to enlarge).  The lower two photos show the 125th Street front end of the 5-story, 62,000 square foot structure that will also have a roof garden.  Another bonus is that it looks down right contextual and should fit in with the historic district when it finishes up next fall. Check out more on the Cooper, Robertson & Partners website: LINK.  Read our past post on the Harlem Village Academy: LINK

☞ REVIVE: Harlem Village Academy Rises

All that tedious excavation and ground work at number 27-29 West 124th Street for the new Harlem Village Academy charter school appears to have finished and now the real action is starting to happen. The lot that goes all the way through to 32 West 125th Street at the former location of the old ConEd building had a couple of ground beams go up last week (top photo) but now the floors are starting to quickly rise (center photo).  This new, contextual, 5-story, 62,000 square foot structure will be home to one of the best performing charter schools in the city and also have a roof garden on this side of 124th Street which faces Marcus Garvey Park.  All the work started back in October 2010 and the expected finish date will be this fall. Check out more on the Cooper, Robertson & Partners website: LINK. Read our past post on the Harlem Village Academy: LINK

☞ REVIVE: Harlem Village Academy on 125th

The new Harlem Village Academy is one of the quickest buildings going up in Harlem. We have been watching the 124th Street side of the charter school go up in recent months but now it appears that the 125th Street facade will be wrapping up soon.  Glass windows were going up out front about a week ago and the final touches will now just entail the interior. Construction started over a year ago on the 5-story, 62,000 square foot building and should finish up in the upcoming months.  Read more about the arrival of this high performing charter school in our past post: LINK

☞ READ: More News About New Charter Schools

Today's New York Times feature on the the state Supreme Court ruling to approve with the closing of 22 traditional public schools and proceed with 15 new public charters was the big news of the day: LINK.  Last year, the teachers union successfully filed a similar suit which prevented reportedly failing schools from being shuttered and the city was told to "take steps to improve the process by which it closed schools."  Apparently the process is now agreeable with the courts and a "logistical nightmare" at the beginning of the school year in September has been prevented. Other details are still being reviewed within the lawsuit but closings and openings are on schedule in the meantime.

The above photo is the back end of the Harlem Village Academy which topped off on the 125th Street side but has more recently reached its full height at 124th Street entrance.  Many of the new charters are taking over current traditional public school spaces uptown but the Harlem's Children Zone and Harlem Village Academy are also transforming the neighborhood with ambitious new construction.  See the final plans of this school that will face Marcus Garvey Park and was designed by the same firm who recently finished the new Richard Rodgers Amphitheater: LINK

☞ INTRODUCING: Harlem Village Academy 125th

If you have been wondering about what's happening to the recently closed Con Edison building at 32 West 125th Street (between Lenox and 5th), then guess no longer. The Real Deal reports that, "With up to $42 million in funding from the city's School Construction Authority, HVA (Harlem Village Academy) ultimately plans to open a five-story, 400-student charter school for grades 6 through 12 at the site, according to an agreement also filed today." The article also states that the notably effective, nonprofit charter school purchased the ConEd site for $14.9 million. Read more in the Real Deal: LINK. Photo by Ulysses

☞ INTRODUCING: New HVA Tops Off

The new Harlem Village Academy building rising at 27-29 West 124th Street has been under construction since October 2010 and now has reached its top level.  This notable charter school facing Marcus Garvey Park took over an old Con Edison building lot and has transformed it into a contextual building that works with the surrounding historic architecture.  All was slated to finish up by Fall of this year but there still appears to be a lot interior work that still needs to happen before the school opens.  Read more about this Harlem Village Academy building in our past post: LINK

☞ INTRODUCING: 125th Street Charter Progress

The new Harlem Village Academy site at 32 West 125th Street looks like it has been completely demoed as of last week and we took a before and after photo of the ConEd building that used to stand on the spot. Back in October, a Harlem Bespoke reader found the sketch of the 5-story contextual building that will rise thanks to $42 million in funding from the school construction authority: LINK.  All this new activity brings us back to a recent article published in the New York Times on the exit of schools chancellor Joel Klein in which he mentioned that 40 percent of students in Harlem are now attending charters: LINK.  The one comment that sticks out the most to us in the article is a quote from Mr. Klein that sums up the education reform movement's goal in recent years:

"There was really a deep belief that there’s only so much you can do, particularly for high-poverty kids. That poverty is, if not destiny, a significant hindrance to effective education. And changing ideas, changing hearts, changing minds — those things are difficult. And not surprisingly, people are going to push back. It’s a lot easier for the school system to say we graduated 45 percent of our kids because our kids had lots of problems and there’s only so much education you can do. It’s a lot harder to say we graduated 45 percent of our kids because we blew it; we didn’t do the job that we needed to do. That kind of ownership is a major kind of transformation."

Now that another Harlem's Children Zone will be also constructed on West 129th Street, it would seem that charter attendance might even go up higher in the new year: LINK.  There are definitely major changes happening in Harlem these days and education is also included in the mix.

☞ READ: Harlem Schools in the Times

The New York Times takes a look at how school choice in Harlem has not been successful for all but does admit that there are more better performing schools uptown than a decade ago.  Harlem has been the neighborhood that the nation has been looking at as far as school reform is concerned and overall the new public charter schools are providing a quality education for families uptown.  Lotteries to get into charters have been tough in recent years but with the increased push to expand this type of public school model into the system, 3,000 more students were accepted this year than last.

The article is a little cynical about a majority of other public schools not performing in the neighborhood but the brighter side of the picture is the fact that even more charters are opening in Harlem.  Harlem Village Academy (above photo) will be opening right off of Marcus Garvey Park and the new Harlem Children's Zone at West 129th will accept students into its doors a year from now.  Read the entire article in the Times: LINK

☞ REVIVE: Harlem Village Academy Progress

Construction over at 27-29 West 124th Street has been going on since March of this year and now the new charter school overlooking Marcus Garvey Park is making some major progress.  In the past weeks, the foundation along with the brick part of the facade has been slowly coming together and everything looks to match nicely with the new building's neighbors.  This section on the north side of the park is in the proposed Mount Morris Park Historic District extension so having something contextual will be a benefit in the future.  Check out our past post to see the final design sketch. LINK 

REMEMBER: CONVENT ON THE HILL CIRCA 1860

                            Archival photo courtesy Manhattanville College

As detailed in the history post about the Harlem Plains, the outstanding building in the Heights was the Convent that sat on the top of the highest point in Manhattanville. This was  location of the Catholic boarding school known as the Academy of the Sacred Heart and some say is the reason Convent Avenue has its unique moniker. The view shown is probably close to where St. Mary's still stands today between Old Broadway and Amsterdam at 126th Street looking north when the surrounding blocks was literally just a small village.  City College would eventually demolish the historic building by 133rd Street in the 1970s even though the structure was one of the key landmarks of the neighborhood for over 100 years.    Check out the view from 110th Street in our past post: LINK