Midtown Schools Will Anchor MXD

NEW YORK CITY-A one-million-sf mixed-use project on East 57th Street in Manhattan will be built around a pair of new school buildings in a public-private partnership between developer World-Wide Group, the city’s School Construction Authority and the state’s Educational Construction Fund. The MXD will also include 170,000 sf of retail space and a 59-story residential tower.

Scheduled for completion in 2012, the MXD is the second phase of a two-part project that has already borne fruit in the form of a temporary home for P.S. 59 on East 63d Street. The converted nursing dormitory, where schools chancellor Joel Klein and others unveiled the MXD design yesterday, was renovated by World-Wide in time for the start of classes last month and is the city’s first school building in accordance with the SCA’s “green” guidelines. When the new P.S. 59 opens as part of the East 57th project, the East 63rd site will be used as a new, 500-seat facility in School District 2.

World-Wide will spend an estimated $200 million to construct the new, 730-seat P.S. 59 and the new 1,400-seat location for the High School of Art and Design on a 1.5-acre site at 250 E. 57th St., located at the southwest corner of 57th and Second Avenue, according to a release. The new schools, replacing existing facilities on the 1.5-acre site, will be located at the corner of 56th Street and Second Avenue.