Truman High School Courtyard

Truman High School Courtyard.

Project details

• Project Name: Truman High School Courtyard
• Location of Site: Bronx, NY, USA
• Design Team: Macrae-Gibson Architects
• Project Type: Conceptual

Truman High School Courtyard with Sculpture.

Words from the architect

Truman High School was built in 1970, and is part of a five-school complex known as the Northeast Bronx Education Park, located within New York's Co-op City housing project. The Neo-Brutalist seven-story brick and concrete building is built around a large rectangular courtyard. Macrae-Gibson Architects was contracted for a $20 Million renovation of the school including a second phase intervention in the courtyard, which, as originally designed, is a forbidding space inaccessible from the school surrounding it on all sides, except by maintenance staff.

Truman High School Hall.

Concept: The courtyard has a double-loaded corridor plan on each side, with stair towers at the external corners. As a result of the large size the school, the circulation system around the courtyard is very inefficient, as the total length of the corridor on each floor is 850 feet. The concept of the project was to improve circulation and utilize an inactive space.

Truman High School Courtyard.

Materials: As a conceptual project no materials were explicitly stated.

Organization: To create access across the building from floor to floor, the design includes eight ramped bridge-corridors that crisscross the courtyard. Stretching from opposite sides of the building to either on the floor above or the floor below. Because the floor-to-floor height of the building varies significantly, and because the location of the existing corridors change depending on the program areas, the length of the ramps also change to maintain a 1: 12 angle. What appears to be randomness in the layout of the bridges is largely determined by these objective architectural conditions, as well as the need for the bridges to avoid hitting each other.

Truman High School Courtyard.

Truman High School Courtyard.

Truman High School Section of Model.

Truman High School Section.

Truman High School Section.

Truman High School Section.

Truman High School Section.

Truman High School Section.

Truman High School Plan.

Credits

• Text and images: Macrae-Gibson Architects