An urban charter school system's first ground-up campus.
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"3000","speed":"300","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationBronx, New York, United States
ClientSuccess Academy Charter Schools, Inc., SOM
Size2.3 acres

Success Academy’s first ground-up campus brings together elementary, middle, and high school under one roof in the South Bronx—a community historically underserved by public infrastructure. The project establishes a dignified and aspirational new presence for one of the nation’s largest and highest-performing public charter networks. Designed by SOM, the six-story, 310,000-square-foot building is set back from the street to create generous plazas and shaded outdoor areas, making an important contribution to a neighborhood with limited public green space.

On a compact urban site, the landscape design extends the school’s welcoming character from the ground plane upward through four rooftop terraces, each tailored to its age group while maintaining a cohesive, elevated design aesthetic. The terraces are designed for flexibility, accommodating both everyday play and special events, with maximum opportunities for social interaction, low maintenance requirements, and a material palette that complements the custom green-glazed masonry facade. Planted areas throughout the site navigate significant grade changes through deep tree pits and sculpted terrain, threading greenery and outdoor learning space through every level of the campus.

Related Projects

North Shore LIJ Women's Hospital

As part of the North Shore LIJ Medical Center expansion by SOM, Thomas Balsley Associates was commissioned to design a landscape that reflects both the hospital’s commitment to healing and its reputation as a progressive health care institution. Thomas Balsley Associates has proposed two major landscape spaces for the campus. The first of these spaces is a cam...

Medgar Evers College Campus Quad

Since its founding in the 1960s, Medgar Evers College has been a central figure and source of pride for Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant community. Its reinvigoration, spurred by a rapidly expanding student body, began ten years ago with a campus master plan, prepared by Ennead Architects and Thomas Balsley Associates. In addition to new facilities, the plan fore...

Samsung Electronics Training Center

Evolving trends in technology and the need to build a new, state-of-the-art Electronics Training Center allowed Samsung to commission the collaborative team of Samoo Architects and Thomas Balsley Associates for the design of their new facility in Keyonggi-Do Province in Korea. Essential to both Samsung and the design team was a site design solution that would ...

Medgar Evers College

This new quad provides a unifying pedestrian connection between Bedford and Franklin Avenues and between existing and new campus buildings, finally providing the campus with a cohesive identity and sense of place. With the dramatic transformation of a parking lot into more campus green space comes the opportunity to integrate a series of sustainability strateg...

Leeum Samsung Museum of Art

From its mountainside perch overlooking Seoul, the Samsung Museum of Art Complex boasts museums by three of the world’s most sought-after architects: Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel and Mario Botta. Uniting these remarkable yet divergent works of architecture is a space of clean and powerful gestures. This elegant, understated landscape serves as their matrix and mu...

Public Safety Answering Center

The landscape is a key component of the PSAC II site. This new five hundred million dollar emergency call center is strategically located in the Bronx, New York and will facilitate emergency response for the City of New York.

An earthern grassland berm completely envelops PSAC II’s architecture and establishes a visual connection between PSAC II and the...

Tampa Museum of Art

The new Tampa Museum of Art by Stanley Saitowitz is set within the city’s arts district whose master plan was prepared by Thomas Balsley Associates and also includes Performing Arts Center, Children’s Museum, Riverwalk, and the centerpiece Curtis Hixon Park. The museum is dramatically sited on a plinth overlooking its companion park and the Hillsborough River....

University of Chicago Booth School of Business

This project regenerates a spectacular, historic cliff-side waterfront site by activating it with new purpose. Working carefully to interweave layers of preservation and natural beauty, the building and landscape work together to leave a light footprint. Today, a distinctive global campus honors the history of its earlier occupation while providing inspiration...