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Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Administration for Children's Services (ACS) Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta today presided at a ceremony marking the completion of the new ACS Children's Center at First Avenue and 29th Street in Manhattan. Renovated at a cost of $67 million under the direction of the City's Department of Design and Construction, the landmark six-story building will house modern, specially designed facilities for children entering the foster care system, as well as the Satterwhite Academy, an education and training center for ACS and contract agency personnel.
"The new ACS Children's Center is in many ways a symbolic expression of the City's reform of the child welfare system that began five years ago when we created ACS as a separate City agency devoted to the well being of children and families," Mayor Giuliani said. "This structure is also the physical manifestation of the tireless commitment that Commissioner Scoppetta and his staff at ACS have demonstrated in dramatically improving child welfare services in our City. The result of their commitment to excellence is a building that will incorporate both great beauty and great service to children and families for decades to come."
Commissioner Scoppetta said, "For the first time in the City's history, we have a state-of-the-art child welfare training facility and child-friendly, professional intake offices. Children will find these offices and play areas designed just for them, to help reduce the trauma of entering foster care. With the Center's modern resources, the Satterwhite Academy has the potential for becoming a national center for child welfare training and research. Without Mayor Giuliani's commitment to ACS and reform, our hopes of making the system a better one for children and families would have been impossible. And so would this beautiful new Children's Center."
DDC Commissioner Kenneth Holden said, "Mayor Giuliani created the Department of Design and Construction to deliver the City's capital construction projects in a safe and expeditious manner. The ACS-Bellevue renovation was one of the most important in our portfolio of more than 1,000 projects. I am proud of the role DDC professionals played in creating a facility that will improve the lives of children for decades to come."
This new Children's Center will house several ACS programs. In keeping with ACS' commitment to education and training of staff, the Satterwhite Academy will provide expanded training programs for all new casework staff and continuing education for all supervisors and managers. In addition to multi-use classrooms, the Academy will have distance-learning capabilities, and a resource library.
Emergency Children's Services investigative units, which respond to and investigate reports of child abuse and neglect that-in some cases-will result in children being removed from their home, will also be located in the facility.
The Children's Center intake center, operated by ACS evaluation and placement units, will provide a child-friendly environment for children entering care. Most children who are brought to the Center will be quickly assigned to an appropriate foster care home. Children requiring medical or other assessments prior to placement, or children arriving late at night, will be accommodated in supervised sleeping areas. The Center also features indoor and outdoor recreation areas, dining facilities, classrooms, medical suites that include private, age-appropriate examination rooms, and private areas where ACS staff can interview children.
The first floor Conference Center features five conference rooms of varying sizes and a 227-seat auditorium.
The building was built between 1907 and 1912, designed by McKim, Mead & White as part of Bellevue Hospital, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been vacant for nearly two decades. The renovation design of the building by architect Richard Dattner was the recipient of the Excellence in Design Award from the New York City Art Commission in March 1999.
Through the City's Percent for Art program administered by Department of Cultural Affairs, ACS commissioned several works of art for the building, including Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel's Bulletin Board, a gently curving, tile mosaic that depicts a child's bulletin board of mementos of friends, family, pets, and drawings. Over the First Avenue entrance, ACS commissioned a terrazzo mural by New York City artist Tomie Arai that depicts New York City children.
The City's Department of Design and Construction directed the project. Construction was managed by Kreisler Borg Florman and completed in 18 months. Occupancy is slated for January 2001.
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