PS 101 To Get New Building, Doubling School’s Size

Students at an overcrowded Gravesend elementary school are about to get more legroom.

Permits have been issued for a new building that will rise in the parking lot of PS 101 The Verrazano School (2350 Benson Avenue), nearly doubling the school’s size, reports YIMBY:

The aging elementary school at 2350 Benson Avenue is a brick, four-story building that wraps around from Bay 35th Street to Benson Avenue and 24th Avenue. Like many of New York City’s public schools, it was constructed during the Great Depression and designed with a few Neo-Classical touches. Elaboroate Corinthian columns frame the entrances, and a little setback after the second floor created a terrace framed with little rounded, concrete columns.

The school, which has an enrollment of 898, is currently being utilized at 157 percent, according to a Department of Education spokesperson. The planned four-story, 51,690-square-foot space is expected to provide 456 additional seats and “alleviate overcrowding” at PS 101 by September 2019.

The ground floor will include a lobby, offices, locker rooms, a cafeteria, and a kitchen. Second, third, and top levels will be made up of classrooms, plus a library on the third floor, and two “play roofs” on second and fourth floors.

PS 101 is also slated to get a Mandarin dual language program for the 2016-2017 school year..