Accommodating an L-shaped site

The 404-student K-5 primary school PS 671 is located on Fifth Avenue in a residential neighborhood in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, near the historic Green-Wood Cemetery. The L-shaped site slopes significantly toward one corner, allowing a sunken playground accessible from the lower-level cafeteria and fulfilling one of the project goals to provide visual security for outdoor play areas.

The facades feature variations in masonry colors and textures that break down the scale of the planar surfaces and signal variations in internal use. A mural by the artist Victor “Marka27” Quinonez, and entitled “Indigenous Flow,” is painted on the side of the school to pay tribute to the ancestral homelands of various global indigenous communities. The mural was inspired by the diverse cultures celebrated within Sunset Park’s vibrant community and was sponsored by the Team Mills Foundation and the National Basketball Association club, the Brooklyn Nets.

Exterior view

Inviting Entrance

First Floor

Program details

Classroom

The building contains four stories of learning and recreational space, with program elements typical of schools in the New York City School Construction Authority portfolio. In addition to general and specialized instruction classrooms, the school includes a “gymnatorium,” exercise room, and a cafeteria and kitchen complex. The lobby mural, “Curious Tide,” was created by the artist Allison Bianco who was inspired by the ocean and beaches of New York City’s coastlines.