Making light in a Harlem school Cooke School,
East Harlem, New York, U.S.A.

As playful as the kids who attend classes there, the new Cooke School and Institute in East Harlem, New York, is awash in jewel tones that glow through the building’s colored glass sidelights that frame its abundant bay windows. The huge bay windows create visual interest and add movement to the building’s arresting facade, set on Madison Avenue and tucked between public housing apartments. The glass sidelights are made with PVB interlayers from the Vanceva color interlayer system to coordinate with walls and floors, enabling students to easily identify their classroom—even from the outside. All this creativity landed New York City-based PBDW Architects and the Cooke School an honorable mention in the international 2022 Vanceva World of Color Awards.

Smaller in scale than surrounding buildings, the Cooke School makes a big impression with its creative use of glazing. By maximizing the glazing along the front and back facades, PBDW Architects ensured that the school is illuminated and spacious both inside and out. Although the classrooms have smaller footprints, the floor-to-ceiling glass bays make them appear larger. While natural sunlight is conducive to learning, classrooms have integrated window shades for easy adjustment to better manage daylight for various learning activities and solar control.

Due to the school’s urban location, care was given in selecting materials for their acoustical properties. PBDW Architects specified unbalanced insulated glazing units, with thicker laminated glass at the outer light, to provide enhanced acoustics while limiting traffic noise from the front and rail noise at the rear of the building. This glass configuration ensures that classrooms remain quiet.

Another factor in attenuating sound is the use of acoustic-backed flooring. The material’s limited color options did not deter the architects from making bold, vibrant color choices—made simple with the use of a Vanceva fan deck to match colors. Once color selections were finalized, they were fabricated by the glazing supplier, JE Berkowitz Architectural Glass.

Slot windows in the stairs bring natural light into the ends of the building and the adjacent interior corridors. PBDW Architects used building performance modeling software to determine the level of glass performance needed to meet energy codes.

WOCA juror Roman Schieber described the Cooke School as a “very interesting piece of architecture. Creative use of color and geometry,” and fellow juror, Firas Hnoosh, noted the “successful integration of color laminated glass into a school project that is perceived in both interior and exterior.”

WOCA juror Jeffrey Monzu says of the project that “This is a very interesting use of color that also applies to the project type. This learning environment is enhanced by the use of this product. The application is very sophisticated and designed into the entire aesthetic.”