Brearley School Files Construction Plans for Expansion Campus

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The Brearley School has filed plans with the Department of Buildings for its expansion campus on the Upper East Side.

The building plans call for a 12-story building rising 197 feet tall and containing 79,000 square feet of space zoned for community use, which in this case is education.

The new campus — located at 590 E. 83rd St. — will contain a gymnasium, kitchen and locker room in the building's cellar, according to the building plans. The first floor will be occupied by a lobby, library, offices and storage. The second floor will contain more office and storage space. Floors three and four will be classroom space, followed by a reading room on the fifth floor and an auditorium that will occupy the sixth and seventh floors. There will be more classrooms on the eighth floor and another gymnasium on the ninth floor. Floors 10 and 11 will be occupied by labs and offices and the top floor will house an outdoor play area.

To make space for the new campus, the school has filed to demolish a trio of five-story tenement buildings — 70, 72 and 74 East End Avenue. The demolition plans were approved by the Department of Buildings in April. The school purchased the three buildings in May 2010, according to a 2015 BuildNYC application.

In 2015 the school won approval to sell $50 million in tax-exempt bonds to help fund its expansion project, Bloomberg reported at the time. The entire project — demolition and construction — is expected to cost around $107.5 million, according to the report.

The Brearley School currently houses its entire kindergarten through 12th grade operation at 610 E. 83rd St., a block away from the proposed expansion. The school enrolls around 700 girls, and the facility is only meant to hold about 440, according to the 2015 BuildNYC application.

The Brearley School did not immediately return a request for comment.

[Photo: Google Maps street view circa 2013]