Pictured above is the Ethical Cultural Fieldston School lower school where the school wants to expand the fourth floor (the fenced in area on the roof) for additional classroom space.
Representatives of the school came to last Thursday's Community Board 8 Land Use Committee meeting to inform the community board how the school is going to expand the Lower School Building roof for more classroom space.
The Community Board was told the construction was as of right, and that it would take about three days for steel to be hoisted by a crane from flatbed trucks on Greystone Avenue to the roof of the building. The board was also told that the school has no other way to get the steel up to the roof, and has already met with neighbors to discuss what the parking situation might be. Neighbors have been offered an equal amount of parking spaces lost in a school parking lot.
I wanted to know how the large trucks would get to the construction site. I was told from Broadway up Manhattan College Parkway to Greystone Avenue, but then another person from the school said that the large trucks would come up the Riverdale Avenue hill to Greystone Avenue.
As you will see in the photos below that the school has other problems with the retaining wall which spans around most of the school.
Above - The retaining wall on Greystone Avenue not far from the lower school shows cracks, and discoloration as well as plant growth in the wall.
Below is a photo of the retaining wall at the corner of Riverdale Avenue and West 238th Street. The cracks here in the wall are so huge that a temporary barrier had to be put up last year.
It appears that the concrete barriers have shifted to create a hazardous condition where people walking by can be hurt by the bulging concrete at the corner of Riverdale Avenue and West 238th Street.
