Chapin School Expansion Still Rankling Neighbors, 5 Years In

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Neighbors have grown weary of an expansion project at an elite Upper East Side private school that has entered its sixth year and continues to generate noise and clog up neighborhood streets, they say.

The Chapin School has been at work since May 2015 on a $135 million project to enlarge its 100 East End Ave. building. When finished, the all-girls school will have a new gym and cafeteria, added classrooms, and three new stories sitting atop the existing eight-story structure.

The completion date, initially slated for 2018, has been extended to January 2021 — a result of the coronavirus pandemic and an over-optimistic projection by the initial contractor, Chapin says.

In that time, the project has endured a fraught few years in the neighborhood. In 2017, it was named the single noisiest construction site in New York, based on more than 100 complaints filed with the city. The same year, residents complained that the work had brought rat infestations, a loss of parking spots and a daylong water cutoff caused by a drilling accident.

Facing unrest, the K-12 school, which charged $51,950 in tuition last year, has made a number of concessions to neighbors.

A sidewalk shed that blocked a lane of traffic on East End Avenue was rebuilt to open up street space. Trash pickups were increased. And the school cut back on after-hours construction despite holding a 24/7 work permit, after residents said nightly drilling was causing them to lose sleep.

“We haven’t fully used all the hours we were permitted,” M.J. Quigley, Chapin's associate head of school, told Patch. The school also engages regularly with neighbors, providing online updates and holding community meetings every six weeks.

"I can hear the screams all day long"

While the project’s most disruptive stages are in the past, it continues to draw neighbors’ ire. Over the summer, work ramped up as the school building sat unoccupied, disturbing residents near the construction hoist on East 84th Street, according to neighbor Lisa Paule, who lives on the street.

“Throughout the months of the summer it has been a hugely impactful construction racket that has really been difficult on neighbors,” said Paule, who has organized fellow residents and co-founded a group, Serene Green 84, to monitor the project.

Scaffolding still covers the full block between 84th and 85th streets, and frequent deliveries from construction trucks have obstructed sections of East End Avenue intended to be blocked to traffic as part of the city's Open Streets program.

Residents have also complained about an influx of construction workers to the site, some not wearing masks when they walk along nearby sidewalks. Neighbor Patrick Niglio said he is awoken promptly at 7 a.m. each day by crews shouting at the worksite.

“I can hear the screams all day long,” he said.

Early this year, Chapin leaders told neighbors that the project would be completed as early as December. Then the pandemic hit, halting construction for weeks in March and April.

That stoppage, plus a staggered return to work once construction was allowed to resume, means Chapin now expects the expansion to finish sometime before March 2021 — nearly six full years after it began.

Students will return for in-person classes Oct. 5 and the hoist will come down later that month, helping reduce noise levels, according to the school.

Still, residents remain frustrated by the project’s extended length — especially given that the finished product will be inaccessible to most neighbors.

“This is not a public project for public benefit,” Paule said. “This is a private school for girls.”

This article originally appeared on the Upper East Side Patch