public school 62, located on a 3.5-acre site at the intersection of Crabtree Avenue and Bloomingdale Road in Staten Island, will be the city’s first net-zero-energy school upon its completion in approximately two to three years.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2012.

The New York office of architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP has been selected to design the 444-seat, 700,000-sq-ft school, which will include pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes.

The plan for the school follows a request for proposals put out by the New York City School Construction Authority, which has been making progress on energy-saving and sustainable initiatives through its NYC Green Schools Guide. As stated in its request for proposals, the SCA said, “We want to push the envelope on this advanced green-design project, which will be our ‘sustainability lab.’”

Roger Duffy, SOM design partner and head of the firm’s education lab, called the project in a statement “an extraordinary opportunity to help define a new paradigm for school buildings for New York City and beyond.”

In addition to PS 62, SOM has created sustainable designs for projects such as the Pearl River Tower in China, which is currently under construction, and the University Center for the New School in New York City.