Washington Heights and Inwood (WHIN) Music Community Charter School is the first school in New York City to be developed out of El Sistema, a model for social action through music founded in Venezuela. At the heart of its pedagogy is the musical ensemble as the teaching tool for academic, character and leadership development. Each student is taught choir and orchestra every day and in this experience learns how to become citizen artists to make the world around them a better place. The school, with its emphasis on serving the local community, puts focus on students and families who are economically disadvantaged, and over the last seven years has become a leading figure in the area.

WHIN's new home on W162nd Street will be an 8-story 55,000 SF building whose expression will celebrate and showcase the school's mission to integrate music into every part of their curriculum. The metal façade design is reminiscent of the various instrumental parts coming together on the staves of a conductor's score. Bright yellow window frames move from structured rhythmic beats at the base to more animated musical notes of the melody on top. This parallels the progression from the fundamentals in the lower grades at the lower floors to the more individual expression or artistry of the upper grades higher up.

The heart of the school, a 400-seat world-class concert hall, will be directly visible from the lobby and street at ground level. The theater orientation is inverted to position the stage directly adjacent to the entry lobby with a glass wall, opening up the daily music life of the school to the neighborhood. From instruction in the theater as classroom to quarterly schoolwide concert performances on its stage, WHIN invites the community to share in the music.

WHIN Music Community Charter School topped out on October 12th and is anticipated to be completed in 2024. The new 8-story building, an adaptive reuse and expansion of a 1930s 3-story parking garage, will also include a separate full cafeteria with outdoor recreational terrace, and a dedicated top floor gymnasium, in contrast to the ubiquitous "cafegymnatorium" in New York City schools. At WHIN, students become agents of social change and compassionate community members with the skills, knowledge and abilities to make the world a more just place. This new building champions WHIN's mission to prepare the ground for these citizen artists to thrive.

GLUCK+ principal Thomas Gluck and WHIN Executive Director Charlie Ortiz talk about the project with Randy Cohen on 'Person, Place, Thing' in May 2024. Listen to their conversation here: bit.ly/wamc-whin