Past Press

Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers Inc. Completes Addition for Jersey City Community

Charter School

LIVINGSTON, N.J. (APRIL 15, 2009) — Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers, Inc. has recently completed work on a 20,500-square-foot addition at the Jersey City Community Charter School at 128 Danforth Ave. in Jersey City, N.J. The new addition, which opened this past fall, has nearly doubled the size of the existing school, which is located in a former catering hall.

The school serves 594 students in grades K-8, with 396 being located in the Danforth Avenue building. The school was founded by the Urban League of Hudson County in 1997 and opened its doors in September 1997 with 77 kindergarten students. Since then the school has added a grade every year, with the addition of the eighth grade class in the 2005/2006 school year completing the organization of the school.

Jamel Kizel has been involved with the school almost since its inception, initially helping with the permitting for modular classrooms, then providing architecture and engineering services for the renovation of the second floor into classrooms (the first floor had previously been renovated). The latest project, the three-story “annex,” includes classrooms, offices, a library, a “cafetorium” and a gym with a rooftop playground.

Schools are a specialty for Livingston, N.J.-based Jarmel Kizel, which is one of the state’s largest and most well-established architecture and engineering firms, and is known for providing one-stop shopping for architecture, engineering and interior design services.
Jarmel Kizel provided architecture and engineering services, including MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), civil and structural design, on this project.

“The new addition was a special challenge because of the difficulties of organizing the construction in a live school environment on a tight urban site,” said Irwin Kizel, a principal at Jarmel Kizel. “But it has been enormously rewarding for Jarmel Kizel to play such a critical role in the development of an innovative new school with strong ties to students, parents and the surrounding community.”

“I have enjoyed the experience of working with Jarmel Kizel,” said Head of School Carletta Martin-Goldston. “They have been very cooperative and easy to work with. “When I talk with them about our educational programs they have been able to create designs that meets our needs. And it’s been a very exciting and rewarding experience to see a 10-year project finally come to fruition.”

Martin-Goldston said the completion of the new annex has allowed students to move out of eight modular classrooms on the school’s premises and into regular classrooms. In addition, it has provided new facilities for the types of innovative learning experiences that fulfill the school’s mission, including a multi-media center, a writing laboratory, a science laboratory and a “block room” for younger children.

The growth of the Jersey City Community Charter School mirrors the growth of the overall charter school movement. In the current school year, there are 62 operating charter schools in New Jersey serving nearly 20,000 students, according to a recent New Jersey charter public schools conference. Six more charter schools are planning to open in the fall of 2009.

A charter school is a free public school financed with public funds that operates independently of the local school board and is directly accountable to the state.

About Jarmel Kizel Architects & Engineers, Inc.
Headquartered in Livingston, N.J., Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers, Inc. is a full-service integrated architecture, engineering, interior design and energy consulting firm serving a distinguished client base of commercial and residential real estate companies, and a myriad of corporations throughout the Northeast.  The company employs registered architects, interior designers, professional engineers, LEED-AP professionals and technical support personnel that provide clients with a single source for all of their facility needs from architectural design, interior design, structural, MEP and civil engineering, to energy solutions and product procurement management services.  For more information, contact the company’s Livingston headquarters at 973.994.9669 or visit www.jarmelkizel.com.