P.S/I.S. 156

Cost: $53 million

Development Team

Owner: New York City Board of Education, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Developer: New York City School Construction Authority, Long Island City, N.Y.
Design/Build Contractor: The DeMatteis Organization, Uniondale, N.Y.
Design Architect: Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, NYC
Architect and Structural Engineer: John Ciardullo Associates, NYC
MEP Engineer: Robert Ettinger Associates, NYC

The largest public school construction completed in New York City in 2002 was the combined elementary and intermediate school P.S./I.S. 156 in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn.

The $53 million, 1,200-seat school cost $53 million and was completed in slightly less than two years. Those involved in the project attributed its speed to the fact that it was one of the first jobs for which the SCA used a design-build process.

"The SCA took the design to 30 percent completion with Mitchell/Giurgola Architects," said Bill Eilers, the SCA's director of architecture and engineering. "We solved the space planning and aesthetics of the building and put the job out to bid for design-build teams."

Alfonso DiMeo, an executive vice president at The DeMatteis Organization, the project's Uniondale, N.Y.-based design-builder, said of the process:

"In the normal method of project delivery, the SCA would engage an architect, who would then have to develop a complete set of plans before the SCA would go to bid. This way, we were working on the excavation and foundations while the complete set of plans was being developed. In my opinion, at least a year was

saved and at least 3 percent of the total cost of construction."

P.S./I.S. 156 welcomed its first students in September.