CUNY-Led Team and The New School Selected as Finalists in Competition to Create Climate Solutions Center on Governors Island
CUNY-Led Team and The New School Selected as Finalists in Competition to Create Climate Solutions Center on Governors Island
Located in New York Harbor, Governors Island’s 172 acres are home to historic buildings, green spaces, educational, arts, and cultural centers, and a historic landmark managed by the National Parks Service. In 2020, The Trust for Governors Island and the Mayor of New York launched an international competition to create a center for climate solutions on the island.
In December 2021, the Trust for Governors Island announced four finalists for the first phase of this competition, which included a joint proposal submitted by The New School and CUNY. The two universities have collaborated on the initiative, the Climate Center Consortium (C3), which would seek to merge climate change adaptation and mitigation work with environmental justice to develop just and equitable solutions that will lead to a future resilient to climate change.
“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time,” said Dwight McBride, president of The New School and university professor. “The solutions will require not only science, but also design and social science to inform how we lead a substantial transformation of attitudes towards climate change in our society, culture, education and behaviors in order to ‘effect lasting change.’
C3 brings together academic, research and community organizations to advance a range of educational needs, including K-16 learning opportunities, degree courses, career and workforce development. work, as well as continuing education diplomas for educators and practitioners. In order to develop transformative climate solutions, C3 will facilitate collaboration between disciplines, sectors, community members, environmental justice organizations and stakeholder groups on Governors Island, around New York and around the world.
“As a university home to one of the world’s leading schools of design, strong social science scholarship, and applied solutions-based scholarship around a sustainable future in urban contexts, The New School is proud to collaborate with our C3 partners on this innovative project that will inspire bold change grounded in the principles of social and environmental justice,” added Chairman McBride. “As New York City’s civic and cultural community leader, The New School regularly engages in partnerships to design and implement solutions to some of our city’s most pressing issues, and we’re thrilled to be finalists for this important reimagining of Governors. Isle.”
C3 envisions Governors Island as a living laboratory for just climate solutions through transdisciplinary research, prototyping and commercialization, focusing on building design, technology and nature-based solutions. Focused on the adaptive reuse of many historic buildings on the island, the consortium will create classrooms, research spaces and dormitories. C3 will also add new spaces, including areas for conferences and gatherings, field and forest research, and public participatory demonstration sites.
C3 partners include Barnard College, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Columbia University, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York University, Northeastern University, University at Albany (SUNY), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and more than 40 community organizations. , education and environmental organizations. SCAPE, FXCollaborative, Henning Larsen and Ramboll collaborated with C3 to develop a design approach that resets New Yorkers’ relationship to the land, water, buildings and each other.
“Climate change is an issue that affects every facet of our lives, which is why we are thrilled to collaborate with our C3 partners on this opportunity to reinvigorate Governors Island as a center for research and education dedicated to combating it. against the environmental crisis,” said Renée T. White, provost of the New School. “Sustainability education is woven throughout our curriculum here at The New School, and we are committed to harnessing the power of our collective knowledge to shape a fairer, healthier and safer future.”