Scully Construction completes $22 million, 250-bed residence building for EF Academy

EF Academy - Thornwood, NY

Thornwood, NY Last September, 250 high school students from around the world moved into a new 55,000 s/f residence building for EF Academy (EFA).

For White Plains-based Scully Construction LLC—which built the 250-bed, four story structure— the project, located on property previously owned by the Legionnaires of Christ and IBM—presented a very tight schedule challenge. “With ground breaking in January, we were facing a compressed timetable to complete the project and be ready for the start of a new semester,” said Brian Keating co-owner of the 35-year-old Scully Construction.

He noted there was added pressure associated with undertaking the $22 million residence because it would help showcase the client’s newest campus on the 97-acre property that was home to IBM’s former 410,000 s/f Thornwood Conference Center.  EF’s main Westchester campus is located on the site of the former Marymount College.

“With so much at stake for this prestigious client, we needed to factor in some cushion to assure that not only would we fulfill the client’s and architect’s vision but to allow enough time for the 250 rooms to be properly furnished before the students arrived,” said Keating.

In close collaboration with Allied Works Architecture and the client, the Scully team developed an innovative design solution that shaved several months from the schedule.

“The solution involved the use of a structural steel framing system with pre-stressed concrete plank for the floors and roof and pre-cast 4-story tall architectural panels for the building’s massive and distinctively designed façade,” Keating said. “This pre-cast approach, done to exact specifications, was undertaken while our construction crew built foundations and erected the steel structure .This enabled us to complete a dormitory that lived up to the Swiss-based EF’s reputation as a world-class educational institution.”

The residence building is the first new structure in EF’s master plan for the site but it’s not Scully’s first work there. When EF acquired the property from the Legionnaires of Christ in 2014, Scully landed the contract to extensively renovate and repurpose the former IBM corporate conference center for use as new classrooms, administrative offices and dorm rooms. That project consisted of a $27 million, four month interior and exterior renovation to three of the existing buildings, totaling over 400,000 s/f.

The new student residence continues Scully’s tradition of providing full-service construction services in the New York metro area for educational, corporate, retail, healthcare and hospitality clients.  Currently, Scully is working on a $6.5 million dialysis center for The Rogosin Institute (a division of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital), located in Brooklyn.