Blue School East Village

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Blue School East Village

New York, NY

Blue School is an early childhood learning center established by the founding members of the Blue Man Group. Originally split between two East Village locations, in 2010 the school relocated to the defunct Cooper Union Engineering building, which posed a number of hurdles for the younger and smaller clientele: from industrial lighting and over-sized classrooms, to dark corridors and an unappealing chain link fence at the entrance. In order to accommodate a very tight budget, we turned to several manufacturers and distributors with whom we have worked in the past to solicit products at low or no cost. This resulted in a specific material palette for the project – one which was not predefined by an aesthetic agenda, but rather contingent upon circumstance and the generosity of our vendors. These items, made available to us in limited quantities, are distributed throughout the school to provide areas of intensity – color, figure, texture – that help mitigate the scale, lighting, and sound issues of the building, while providing a visually rich background environment. At the entry, simple construction site materials were re-imagined to transform the existing chain link fence into a form of abstract signage for the school. At close range, for pedestrians and passing cars, the screen appears as an unusual composition, the letter shapes not unlike a common neighborhood graffiti tag. Viewed obliquely and from afar the language of the screen comes forward to announce the school’s entrance.

Recipient of an AIA Design Award (2013)