The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced this week that Ennead and Dattner Architects will design the Science Park and Research Campus (SPARC) Kips Bay project.
Upon completion, the $1.6 billion project will deliver a new education hub in Kips Bay, Manhattan, for healthcare sector workers. As reported by AN, SOM was responsible for SPARC’s master plan, which was released with CUNY and NYCEDC last November.
Ennead and Dattner Architects said that SPARC Kips Bay will deliver a first-of-its-kind job and education center. Cumulatively, SPARC will include almost 2 million square feet of space for educational programming, workforce development, and job opportunities for the life sciences, public health, and healthcare sectors.
In a joint statement, the designers said: “Ennead and Dattner Architects are thrilled to bring our years of experience working in NYC, our expertise in resiliency and sustainability, and our deep commitment to community and public space to help design this innovative new development to shape the city’s future. We look forward to sharing more updates soon.”
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SPARC’s master plan proffers a new 700,000-gross-square-foot education building shared by three integrated CUNY schools: Hunter College School of Nursing, CUNY Graduate School of Health & Health Policy, and Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC); and a new public health and science career-focused public high school. The project also has a large public open space, a new pedestrian bridge across the FDR for waterfront access, and flood proofing infrastructure along the East Side.
Furthermore, SPARC will transform Hunter College’s Brookdale Campus into a state-of-the-art academic, healthcare, and life sciences hub, the architects elaborated. Dattner and Ennead stated that the project will deliver major benefits for the city, including billions of dollars in economic impact, improvements to the public realm, and a pipeline from local public schools and city universities into the aforementioned sectors.
Construction in Kips Bay should start in 2026 and complete in 2031.
