NBA leaders, stars break ground for $35M Basketball Charter School in the Bronx
NBA players and leadership, faculty and students joined the project team of Pillar Property Management, ESKW/Architects and IMC Architecture to break ground for the 69,000-square-foot, five-story Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School at 647 Elton Avenue in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, NY. Left to right: Allan Houston; JV Construction & Consulting President Jovana Villanueva; Brisa Builders CEO/managing Member Ericka Keller; David Esfhani; Tim Thomas; New York City Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr.; Charles Smith; Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier; IMC Architecture Principal Jonathan Imani, AIA; Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School senior Janiyah David; ESKW/Architects Partner Kimberly Murphy, AIA; Pillar Property Management Principal Kiumarz Geula; Earl “The Pearl” Monroe; Alexander Geula; Earl Monroe School Board of Trustees Vice Chairman and President & CEO of Tri-State Construction Jack Irushalmi; Danielle Damaghi and Gabrielle Damaghi, DNG Property; Julius Randle; Tom Thibodeau; former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.; John Starks. Photo by Brittainy Newman
The Bronx, NY– New York Knicks legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe led the groundbreaking celebration of the high school named in his honor, The Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School (EMNRBS), as the crowds of ecstatic students, faculty, community leaders, teachers, parents, political figures and board members of the three-year-old not-for-profit public charter school cheered. They were joined by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, New York Knicks icon and broadcaster Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier, New York Knicks All-Star Julius Randle, New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, Pillar Property Management Principal Kiumarz Geula, IMC Architecture Principal Jonathan Imani, AIA, and ESKW/Architects Partner Kimberly Murphy, AIA.
Designed by ESKW/Architects and IMC Architecture, the new five-story building is scheduled to open its doors in early 2026. The new school will be located at 647 Elton Avenue near the cross section of Third Avenue and East 152nd Street in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, NY. The school will operate under a long-term lease from the developer Pillar Property Management. The project team also includes construction manager JV Construction & Consulting and general contractor Brisa Builders.
According to EMNRBS Chairman of the Board Dan Klores, the Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and playwright who founded the first-ever specialized charter high school that employs student passion for basketball to drive academic achievement and career opportunity off the court, “Being here in the South Bronx was always our dream because we feel strongly that our presence as an anchor tenant can serve to inspire further investment in this community in education, the arts, and commercial, residential and retail real estate.”
“Today’s groundbreaking is a celebration of two years of hard work by an incredibly talented real estate, design and construction team. I extend my gratitude and congratulations to the school, our joint venture partner David Damaghi, IMC Architecture, ESKW/Architects, JV Construction & Consulting, Brisa Builders and Bank of Hope, which provided a $21 million construction loan for this $35 million project,” shared Pillar Property Management Principal Kiumarz Geula.
According to IMC Architecture Principal Jonathan Imani, AIA, “When it is completed in early 2026, this 69,000-square-foot building will feature state-of-the-art athletic and learning environments, including an 8,000-square foot gymnasium, 27 regular and specialty classrooms, a library and media production studio and a dedicated broadcast studio with a green screen.”
Brandon Corley, one of two EMNRBS executive directors, stated, “In the three years we’ve been open in our temporary space in Pelham Bay in the Bronx, we’ve witnessed a remarkable improvement in the reading, literacy, and math levels of our 400 students who have essentially been neglected for the past 14 years. To continue our progress, we need more resources, so today is a perfect time to kick off our $5 million capital campaign. Once we reach our goal, we will be self-sufficient!”
“We wanted to be part of this incredibly progressive idea: to not only root a school in a language that kids are already drawn to, but to broaden the expectations for a career related to the game,” stated Kimberly Murphy, AIA, Partner at ESKW/Architects.
EMNRBS will be the first of its kind in the nation: a purpose-built, specialized high school with an academic curriculum entirely designed around basketball and the many career paths associated with the global game, from broadcast media to sports psychology, law, nutrition, facilities management and venture capital business. EMNRBS is a charter, co-ed, and tuition-free high school. It will be located in the 7th School District in the South Bronx, which has the third highest poverty rate and economic need index in New York City.
SCHOOL AND PROJECT BACKGROUND
School founder Dan Klores created the New Renaissance Basketball Association (RENS) in 2013 to help historically disadvantaged youth attain college admissions and scholarship awards. Over the years, RENS has supported more than 1,500 student athletes, with 99% of all seniors receiving full college scholarships.
Based on the RENS experience, Klores and NBA icon Earl Monroe decided to open the nation’s first high school entirely designed around careers related to the game of basketball. Planning for the EMNRBS began in late 2019. The school opened its doors two years later in September 2021 in a temporary location at 1617 Parkview Avenue in the Bronx.
School officials tapped Pillar Property Management to join the project team as developer of its permanent location, because the firm specializes in developing educational, housing and public-need facilities in underserved communities. The school’s leadership was attracted to Kiumarz Geula’s civic-minded approach to real estate development and his firm’s track record of understanding the needs of a community when developing projects. The firm focuses mainly on education, housing and community service-type property sectors and has developed approximately two million square feet of real estate.
The 7,000-square-foot development site originally consisted of three adjacent properties, which were combined into one, now owned by a joint venture of Pillar and a former owner. Geula said the site was chosen based on the functional needs of the school as the site’s zoning and layout allowed the development of a building that would meet the school’s specific needs. The school signed a 31-year, triple-net lease with the property’s ownership.
PLANNING, ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGES
ESKW/Architects joined the project as design architect for the EMNRBS. Pillar Property Management retained IMC Architecture as executive architect for the building. Pillar also invited two experienced minority- and women-owned construction firms to join the team: construction manager JV Construction & Consulting and general contractor Brisa Builders, both of which collaborated with the developer on several previous school projects.
The building’s steel structural frame and precast concrete floor planks will sit on a foundation of reinforced concrete with spread footings and grade beams. The project’s location at a busy intersection created several logistical and staging challenges for the construction team. “While planning for large structural steel elements delivery and erection, we opted for this complex process to take place on weekends to avoid interrupting individual and commercial weekday traffic. The crane operation will require temporary street closures, which the construction team will keep to a minimum to reduce inconvenience to the neighbors,” shared JV Construction & Consulting President Jovana Villanueva.
The project holds a special meaning to Brisa Builders CEO and Managing Member Ericka Keller. “Prior to joining Brisa Builders in 2012, which was established by my parents in 1997, I worked for many years as a charter school principal and public school teacher. The EMNRBS project quintessentially combines my two professional and personal passions: education and construction,” Keller said.
The school will serve up to 440 students in grades 9-12. The five-story building with a cellar will house 24 regular classrooms, averaging 650 square feet each, as well as two specialty science classrooms, an art studio and classrooms dedicated to educational training in fields related to basketball, including weight training and physical therapy. The 8,000-square foot gymnasium will serve as the centerpiece of the building.
The ESKW/Architects and IMC Architecture team focused on both creating a comfortable and energetic learning environment and ensuring that the school building represents the ideas of openness and belonging to the South Bronx community. The structure will incorporate large, glazed areas of curtain wall into the façade to both allow passersby to visually engage with activities taking place inside and remind students that they are part of a vibrant community. The designers selected exterior materials that are easily recognizable as associated with both traditional school buildings and athletic facilities, such as brick and concrete panels.
Reflecting the basketball focus, the architecture is inspired by the traditional field house design of the early 1900s, which featured an arched entrance. This element is reflected in the design of the schools’ entrance, prominently located on the corner of 152nd Street and Elton Avenue. The angular glazing that will be wrapped around and above the main entrance leading into the lobby is an interpretation of this concept. The architects were also inspired by traditional brick facade designs of American schools from the 1920s and 1930s and incorporated a modern adaptation of it into the current design.
The design concept is focused on well-being and health consciousness, including oversized windows that offer increased amounts of natural light. Similarly, the social interaction aspect of school life is reflected in the dining room and lounge envisioned as a social space and in locating numerous informal social gathering areas on each floor housing classrooms.
The two-story-high glazing of the curtain wall that will wrap around the entrance will help integrate the building into the community. The designers chose this as a way to announce the presence of the school to the area and invite people into the building, both symbolically and literally. The seven-foot-wide interior staircase, which will allow students to access all six levels of the building, will be articulated on the building’s exterior through a glazed curtain wall.
The architectural and engineering team faced an interesting challenge of locating a massive gym in a tight, urban location, while ensuring that the building meets the school’s programming needs. They achieved this by placing the upper floors above the gym, which is unusual due to structural challenges of building floors above wide-span spaces without columns. ESKW/Architects, IMC Architecture and structural engineers developed an oversized truss structural system that is 12-feet-high with 95-foot-long lower beams. Due to its dimensions, the designers creatively hid the system in the walls and ceilings of the third floor in the area above the gym.
The team chose many unusual design elements and features for the project. One interesting concept is the choice to use different colors of exterior brick masonry to distinguish the building’s public and private spaces within. Public places on the lower levels, such as the gym, library and lobby, will have a traditional color, while the exterior of the section housing classroom spaces on the upper floors will have a lighter colored brick. The building’s exterior will also use gray panels to indicate the location of the gym and library/media center as well as to break up the massing of the building.
Another design challenge was how to make the facade detail at the entrance visually interesting. According to IMC Project Architect Austin Schlosser, “In order to do this, ESKW/Architects designers incorporated unusual, angled brick walls surrounding the glazing system around the lobby as well as a sloped brick system stepping down toward the glazing. IMC identified a supplier, IG Masonry Support, who helped engineer this system and design and fabricate custom brackets that to support this unusual brick feature.”
The building will have an international aspect, as the windows will be manufactured in Germany and the Netherlands and the structural system above the gym will be fabricated by Bretton Steel based in Quebec, Canada. In addition, the brick bracing system manufacturer, United Kingdom-based IG Masonry Support’s manufacturing facilities are located in Poland, England and Wales.
INTERIORS
As students enter the building, they will encounter the main lobby. The focal point of the 1,300-square-foot space will be a dramatic 16’x9′ TV screen wall that broadcasts the school’s branding, programming and information on current events and school activities. The lobby will also have a custom reception desk with a quartz counter and a security desk – or welcome desk. As students move through the lobby, they’ll find passageways that either lead to the gymnasium or the classrooms on the upper floors. Some of the staff offices that will be located on the ground floor include the principal’s office, community coordinator’s office and nurse’s office. The lobby will feature lounge furniture and seating and potentially a donor wall.
There will be a large window that looks into the stairs behind the welcome desk. The walls will have wood panels perpendicular to the TV wall that will be visible from the outside for a dramatic effect. The lobby will also feature accent lighting, porcelain ceramic tiles and a gypsum board ceiling with ECT sound-absorbing panels.
The two-story-high glazing that will wrap around the entrance lobby will help integrate the building into the community. The designers chose this as a way to announce the presence of the school to the area and invite people into the building, both symbolically and literally. Since the school might host community events in the gym, the entrance lobby was organized with a floor layout that will allow visitors to proceed directly to the gym, while keeping the rest of the school separated from that pathway for safety reasons. The glow of oversized TV screens and welcoming design of the lobby will be visible through the glazing, showcasing the school’s activities and signaling its openness to the neighborhood. The building will house two main staircases and one elevator.
“As visitors pass the welcome desk, they will proceed into the gymnasium, which will be a full competition-scale athletic facility featuring a central full court and two side courts,” added Schlosser. “It will have telescopic seating for 350 spectators and an additional 40 seats for players, coaches and staff. It will feature six side-swinging, electrical basketball backstops and one digital scoreboard, as well as 300 square feet of support and storage spaces, and an area with broadcast equipment for live-feed broadcasts and taping of games for analysis. The gym will also have a large projection screen on the south end for school meetings and events.”
The gym will feature seven clerestory windows. They will be located 15-feet high on the wall on the north side of the building to allow natural light in but not direct sunlight that would impair the players’ vision. The gym will also include a DIN-certified engineered wood floating floor system and drywall with padding in the school’s colors on the north and south ends. The ceiling concrete deck and steel beams will be exposed. All lighting throughout the building, including the gym, will be high-efficiency LED fixtures, with the gym featuring oversized pendant fixtures with extra bright, energy-efficient LED lighting elements.
The cellar will house the student dining center and lounge. This multi-functional space with an open floor plan is designed for social gatherings and will be used as a secondary education area for studying after class. It also features a nutritional education center and retail space where guests can purchase school merchandise during games. Although it is a rare feature in urban schools, students will receive fresh and nutritional quality food that’s cooked onsite in the adjacent full-service kitchen. The cellar will also house a large weight training room with rubberized athletic flooring that will also be used for physical therapy classes, as well as a dance room with a floating floor system and a recording room that are part of the school’s music program.
The dining/commons area in the cellar will feature light gray ceramic tile floors with dark accents and painted drywall. The ceiling will have wood composite panels, with one section wrapping down to cover the wall, and accent light fixtures. The designers also chose to use many indirect lighting fixtures as a wellness element, since indirect lighting provides a better light quality. The serving area will incorporate a 28-foot-long counter that wraps around the corner. The front will be clad in white subway tiles and the top will feature an engineered quartz stone counter.
The second floor will have a partial footprint, because the upper level of the gym occupies a portion of it. This level will house a lounge area that will serve as VIP seating for games and a multi-functional library with a media center and conference room. The executive director’s office, which will overlook the gym, and the staff lounge will also be located on this floor. There will be open glazed walls adjacent to the gym so people can look into the gym from the area. The lounge space next to the library/media center and the broadcast studio also will have windows that overlook the gym and the lobby.
The third through fifth floors will primarily house classrooms and will each contain a whiteboard area for studying after class, as well as various offices. On the third floor, students will find seven regular classrooms and one art room, as well as an outdoor terrace for student use. It will also include the academic dean and special education offices and gender-neutral bathrooms featuring full-height stalls and a shared hand washing and sink area. The fourth floor will include 10 classrooms, including chemistry and physics rooms with custom casework and individual lights customized to the particular science needs, as well as the dean of student culture’s office.
The fifth floor will also include 10 classrooms and the college career counseling office. A unique feature of the classroom floors is that the lockers in the corridors will be located in bays and won’t be doubled on both sides of the hallway to reduce crowding and make traffic flow easier throughout the corridors.
All the hallways throughout the school will feature resilient tile flooring and the lockers will be designed with a custom color pattern based on the school’s colors. The classrooms will also feature the same flooring and have varied ceiling heights, with some sections up to 10 feet high, and include indirect light fixtures and acoustic tiles.
Pillar Property Management
Pillar Property Management is a real estate development, ownership and management organization based in Great Neck, NY. The firm operates mainly in the housing, education, non-profit and community service sectors. With private and public funding, Pillar has developed over 1,600,000 square feet of space.
In the education market, the organization builds and supports schools, mainly focusing on charter schools. From Pre-K through 12th grade, Pillar believes in education not only for students, but also for families, communities and industries. The firm has developed over 650,000 square feet of community and educational facilities, including retrofitting properties for charter, special needs and pre-schools as well as building new charter schools in Far Rockaway, the Bronx, Queens, and Harlem.
In the residential sector, the firm develops and manages apartment buildings, frequently re-developing neglected neighborhoods in a comprehensive way for the residents to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. One of the recent projects in this market was in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, where Pillar purchased and redeveloped 525,000 square feet on both sides of 3rd Avenue between 167th and 168th Streets. This multi-stage development has become an anchor for reconstruction of this area of the Bronx, giving new life to the community. Similarly, in Bridgeport, CT the firm is currently embarking on re-vitalizing a portion of the Downtown district. This exciting endeavor includes both re-purposing historic vacant structures, and developing new buildings.
Additional information: pillarnyc.com
IMC Architecture
Three principals established IMC in 2015, following accomplished careers at leading regional and national firms: Eugene Mekhtiyev, AIA, LEED GA; Jonathan Imani, AIA, NCARB; and Dominick Casale, AIA, NCARB. Working mainly in the highly regulated urban environments of New York City and the greater New York area, the founders believe compliance and creativity aren’t mutually exclusive. In addition to architectural work, the firm offers interior design services.
Known for its quality architecture, contemporary aesthetic, technical acumen and zoning expertise, the firm works predominantly in the education, multi-family, commercial, workplace, retail, hospitality and worship markets. IMC has designed some of the most prominent recent projects in New York City and the greater New York area and is one of the pioneers of the modular design and construction technology in New York City and the surrounding region. In addition to design services, the firm also operates an affiliated zoning, expediting and permitting consultancy CORE Consultants.
The studio’s portfolio features nearly ten million square feet of architectural design and consulting projects, totaling in excess of $2 billion in construction value. The firm’s education, commercial and institutional design portfolio includes the Ascend Public Charter Schools at 1833 Nostrand Avenue and 2840 Atlantic Avenue; 28,000-square foot Persian Congregation of Flatbush; 90,000-square foot 15 Parkville Avenue medical and office building, 36,500-square foot Center 15 medical services building and 20,000-square foot Spring Creek Towers property management office, all in Brooklyn, NY as well as the Elm Charter School at 79-20 Queens Boulevard in Queens, NY.
IMC’s luxury, market rate and affordable condominium and rental multi-family design work includes the 41-unit 550 Prospect Place and 16-unit 701-703 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn, NY; 155-unit Bronx Vibe rental property at 299 East 161st Street, 21-unit 35 Kingston Avenue and 34,000-square foot Croton Residence in the Bronx, NY; 70-unit The Grand and 73-unit NewRo in New Rochelle, NY; and multiple upgrades to the 37-story, 807-unit 63-67 Wall Street rental property in Manhattan.
For additional information, please visit www.imcarchitecture.com.
ESKW/Architects
Founded in 1960 by Judith and Harold Edelman, and currently led by Kimberly Murphy (AIA), Andrew Knox (FAIA), and Randy Wood (AIA), ESKW/Architects has over fifty years of experience in the design industry, with a strong commitment to the non-profit and institutional sectors. Education, housing, and healthcare are the cornerstones of ESKW/Architect’s practice, and fostering long-term relationships is a common thread throughout their history.
The firm’s commitment to community-building has been demonstrated in several largescale, award-winning projects such as Bedford Green House I (Bronx, 2023), New Settlement Community Campus (Bronx, 2013), PS 32K (Brooklyn, 2020), True Colors Residence (New York, 2012), and Sharks! (Brooklyn, 2012).
ESKW/Architects has been recognized with awards from the American Institute of Architects, the Urban Land Institute, the national and New York chapters of the Society of American Registered Architects, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.
eskwarchitects.com
JV Construction & Consulting
Jovana Villanueva established the Bronx, NY-based JV Construction & Consulting in 2017, following a long career as a project executive and manager in New York City, with a personal portfolio of completed work valued in excess of $130 million. The firm provides construction management, owner’s representation and general contracting services across multiple market sectors, including commercial, institutional, educational, worship, multifamily residential, healthcare, and retail. JV is a New York State- and New York City-certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE).
In the education sector, the company has completed numerous charter school projects, including the Bronx Academy of Promise, Legacy Charter School and South Bronx Community Charter High School, all in the Bronx, NY and the Challenge Preparatory Charter School in Far Rockaway, NY. In other markets, JV’s recent work as a Project Manager includes the $100 million, 25-story, 246-unit condominium tower Brooklyn; $47 million, 181-unit affordable rental property in the Bronx; $43 million167-unit affordable multi-family development in the Bronx and $16.2 million New Life Recovery Center at the BronxCare Health, formerly Lebanon Hospital. In other locations, the firm’s portfolio includes as the renovation of the Convent Avenue Baptist Church in Harlem Manhattan.
www.jvconstructionconsulting.com
Brisa Builders
Based in Brooklyn, NY, Brisa Builders Corp. (www.brisabuilders.com) is a family-owned construction management, general contracting and real estate and faith-based development firm founded in 1997 by the late Lilly W. Keller under the advisement and support of her husband, the late Thomas B. Keller. Together, the couple had a combined 70 years of experience in construction and real estate industries.
Today, the firm has a portfolio of completed and ongoing projects valued in excess of $1.5 billion, operating in markets spanning education, commercial, houses of worship, institutional, multifamily, senior housing, healthcare and public sectors. The company is a certified New York State and New York City Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE).
Brisa’s recent education market work includes the Challenge Preparatory Academy Charter School in Far Rockaway, NY and the South Bronx Community Charter School in the Bronx, NY. In other sectors, the firm’s portfolio includes the 523-unit Ebenezer Plaza affordable housing complex, 89-unit Bishop Philius and Helene Nicolas Senior Residence, $15 million Brookdale Hospital Medical Center Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit upgrades as well as 107-unit Berean Apartments and Community and Family Life Center at 110 Rochester Avenue, all in Brooklyn, NY.
Read the original article here