Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

New Elementary School Opens in South Bronx, N.Y.

  • By Matt Jones
  • 09/10/24

Forte Construction Corp. recently announced that it has completed construction on P.S. 487, a new four-story elementary school in the South Bronx, according to a news release. The school is open for the current academic year and will serve more than 500 students in grades PreK–5. The 85,000-square-foot school was built on land previously used for portable classroom trailers for a district high school.

The school features four PreK classrooms, three kindergarten classrooms, and 15 standard classrooms, the news release reports. It also features eight special education classrooms, two speech and resource rooms, and occupational and physical therapy space. According to the news release, the new school comes during a time when “more than 300,000 students in the city’s highest-need schools are learning in overcrowded classrooms,” citing a United Federation of Teachers study from November 2023.

“Thanks to the excellent collaboration between the School Construction Authority and our team at Forte Construction, and all of our vendors and subcontractors, we are proud to deliver this state-of-the-art school building in advance of the start of the next school year in September,” said Project Manager Dan Villandre. “Our team constructed this school from the ground up and are proud that P.S. 487 will be a welcoming haven for students in the South Bronx for countless decades to come.”

Outdoor amenities include a 3,400-square-foot play yard featuring a volleyball court, basketball court, and running track. It also features a garden for academic use by students and teachers.

The project broke ground in July 2021 as part of a School Construction Authority 2020–2024 Capital Program that provided $1.6 billion to 21 school buildings to add the capacity for just short of 12,000 students to the Bronx, the news release reports.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Wold Architects & Engineers Acquires VPS Architecture

    Full-service planning, architecture, and engineering firm Wold Architects & Engineers recently announced that it has acquired VPS Architecture, according to a news release. The move will help strengthen Wold’s education and public-sector design expertise, industries in which both companies have strong pre-existing ties and relationships.

  • Indiana Wesleyan University Schedules Grand Opening for New Welcome Center

    Indiana Wesleyan University recently announced that it will soon open a new Welcome Center on its campus in Marion, Ind., according to a news release. The facility will serve as the home base for prospective students and their families to learn more about the university and student life there. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for February 19.

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • Construction Begins on New University Research Vessel

    Boat-building company All American Marine recently announced that it has begun construction on a new catamaran research vessel for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) in Port Aransas, Texas, according to a news release.