Orenson Construction leads 5,000 s/f renovation and 20,000 s/f addition at The Bronx Charter School

Orenson Construction recently unveiled its latest addition and renovation project: The Bronx Charter School for Children. The venture is located at 388 Willis Ave. on the corner of 144th St. (between 143rd and 144th Sts.) The project team, led by owner/developer Orenson Construction, renovated 5,000 s/f of the existing 20,000 s/f K-3 educational facility. The team also erected a 20,000 s/f addition to the expanding school. The addition included a two-story vertical addition and a four-story plus basement horizontal addition. The project arose out of the school's need for more space. The school had become so successful that they wanted to add additional grades, support, and activity space. They were looking to move, but attributes of their parcel and the availability of an adjacent site, Orenson was able to facilitate their expansion in the existing location. An added benefit to expand on the school's current location was that the existing building was designed with a future expansion in mind. Orenson had space available in an neighboring building that helped accommodate the schools space needs while the expansion was being built. When complete, it will be one contiguous building that was built while the existing building was 100% occupied and used by a school for children. Orenson orchestrated the project so that the school would not lose any portions of the building due to the construction. There were many design and logistical challenges that were met to facilitate this. Construction was done at night, on weekends, and holidays. For example, a tunnel was excavated to create a hallway between the new and old basements. This tunnel was located underneath a kindergarten class room and took only seven days over Christmas vacation to complete. The classroom was restored to its original condition before the children returned from vacation and never noticed a difference! The Bronx Charter School for Children is a public elementary school that provides a rigorous academic curriculum supplemented with opportunities for enrichment, ensuring academic challenge and support to all students. Nurturing the potential of each child is their goal. The school values the integration of literacy and math skills with all other content areas and encourage active inquiry. The Bronx Charter School for Children is an educational community of teachers and learners, working together to emphasize the highest standards and levels of achievement, promote positive leadership and healthy choices, and develop resourceful, responsible, and thoughtful citizens of tomorrow. In addition to owner/developer Orenson Construction of New York, N.Y., Super Steelworks Corp. of Deer Park, N.Y. was the project steel contractor, Harriet Lever Corp., of Mineola, N.Y. was responsible for the concrete foundation; Admiral Air Conditioning, based out of Queens installed the HVAC systems; OM Electric of New York, N.Y. took care of the electrical work; and Schindler Elevator of New York, N.Y. brought the projects elevators from a three-stop elevator to a five stop elevator. Michael Depasquale Architect, of New Vernon, N.Y. and Lou Baldino Architect, New York, N.Y. were the project architects; Bronx Mechanical, based out of the Bronx was responsible for the plumbing work; Brennan Mechanical of the Bronx handled the fire sprinkler systems; Richard Zaloum PE was the structural engineer and Kemper Roofing of N.J. performed roofing services.