The Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability at Sandy Ground. Photo Stark Video Inc. | Aerial NY © SOM
Photovoltaic panels distinctively wrap this recently completed public school in New York City’s borough of Staten Island, a project we first learned about during a studio visit to the office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 2014. While this feature gives the school its most dramatic expression – a cantilevered roof overlooking the playing fields – it is just one of many sustainable elements in a project that strives to be the first net-zero energy school in the city. The architects at SOM answered a few questions about the building.