ECS currently operates four building each of which was "recycled." In collaboration with community partners, ECS transformed existing buildings into high functioning school facilities. Each building has its own green features and unique history:
Primary School (Braddock Avenue)
The ECS Primary School, originally Park Place School, is located in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh and was built in 1903. The school closed in 1979 and was sold to the Pittsburgh Housing Authority in 1981. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and it briefly functioned as an apartment building later on. In 2012, the Environmental Charter School renovated the building back to its original purpose - educating young minds. Fun Fact: When the building was previously converted into apartments, the original chalkboards were never removed. They were simply covered by walls. When ECS moved in, we were able to take down those walls and reveal the chalkboards, making it easy to transform the space back into classrooms.
Intermediate School (Milton Street)
The ECS Intermediate School, formerly the Milton School, was built circa 1920. Fun fact: Where'd You Go, Bernadette was filmed at the Intermediate School in the summer of 2018. While very little is known about the history of the building, ECS purchased the property in 2008 as its first building. Since acquiring the property, ECS has transformed the outside areas into a garden and provided space for its edible school year program. The Milton Street School resides in the Regent Square community at one of the Frick Park entrances. Its proximity to the park laid the foundation for many of ECS's practices.
Middle School (Columbo Street)
The Rogers School was built in 1914 designed by architects Janson and Abbott. Fun fact: the roof of the Middle School is terra cotta tiles sitting on poured concrete. Rogers operated as an elementary school for forty years, closed in 1980, and then reopened in 1982 as a magnet middle school for the creative and performing arts until it closed once again in 2009.
After sitting vacant for almost a decade and enduring years of neglect and vandalism to the point of significant disrepair, the building was purchased in 2018 and redeveloped for the Environmental Charter School.
Originally designed to function as a school, the more than 100-year-old building already had many programmatic room types and features that lent themselves perfectly to ECS's curriculum. While utilizing the infrastructure as much as possible, a few strategic modifications and updates were made in order for the building to function better for its 21st-century occupant.
Although the original chalkboards and some of the architectural details of the classrooms were removed over the years, the Rogers School's rooms were restored to their original intent -spaces for learning. Non-Original windows, clouded with age, were replaced with historically contextual, thermal replacement windows. Contemporary, flexible furniture and state-of-the-art technology allow historical spaces to function for modern-day students.
