Truman High School in the Bronx, the central element of a six building complex, is the largest such school complex in the nation. The complex is in turn surrounded by the many towers of Co-op City.

The high school is a seven-story brick and concrete building built around a large rectangular courtyard. The project involves an addition in the courtyard, which, as originally designed, was a forbidding rectangular space inaccessible from the school surrounding it on all sides, except by maintenance staff.

Each side of the courtyard has a double-loaded corridor plan, with stair towers at the external corners. As a result of the large size the school, the circulation system around the courtyard was very inefficient, since the total length of the corridor on each floor is 850 feet. This makes getting from one side of the school to the other difficult and time-consuming. In addition, the main corridor was internal, without distinguishing features, and caused considerable spatial disorientation. Lastly, the school was in need of additional classroom space.

To create access across the building from floor to floor, we have designed eight ramped bridge-corridors that crisscross the courtyard. Each bridge stretches from the corridor on one side of the building to the corridor on the opposite side of the building, either on the floor above or the floor below. Because the floor-to-floor height of the building varies significantly on different floors, and because the location of the existing corridors change depending on the program areas on different floors, the length of the ramps also change to maintain a 1:12 angle. What appears to be randomness in the layout of the bridges is therefore largely determined by these objective architectural conditions, as well as the need for the bridges to avoid hitting each other.

The 4,000 square feet of program area devoted to lockers which were located within the building was relocated to the bridge-corridors. A space of social interaction was therefore created in the eight bridges as they project across the courtyard. Light and a sense of spatial orientation were introduced into the experience of circulation as a result. The area within the school made available due to the relocation of the lockers was converted to provide an additional seven classrooms overlooking the new courtyard.

Most importantly for the architectural experience of the school, the dehumanizing central space was converted into a visually challenging social experience that critiques the pseudo-rationalism of the original design. The architectural transformation enables the school to literally see itself, and to understand more clearly the new condition of interconnectedness as an antidote to its original alienation and emptiness.