It has been two decades since Governor’s Island was transferred from control of the federal government to New York City. The move sparked a desire for its innovation among those in local government; 172 acres of land off the coast of Manhattan is prime real estate for any sort of ambitious venture.
On Monday, the venture became public: Mayor Eric Adams said that a $700 million state-of-the-art campus dedicated to fighting the climate crisis would be built there.
“Today, here, in the heart of New York Harbor, we are taking a giant leap forward into the future,” Adams said, hailing the initiative as a preeminent international climate science hub.
“It will truly be the first of its kind model for advancing research to accelerate the deployment of climate solutions that will help us with what I believe is the greatest threat of our time — the climate crisis,” Maria Torres-Springer, the city’s deputy mayor for economic and work force development, added about the project.
A consortium led by Stony Brook University on Long Island will transform a piece of the island into a 400,000-square-foot research and training center called the “New York Climate Exchange” set to open in 2028. The campus will encompass classrooms, laboratories, research spaces, a global conference center and room for public engagement and programming. The new campus promises to serve over 5,000 students from kindergarten through college, along with 250 faculty members and researchers. This educational mission will be pursued in partnership with the Harbor School, a high school that operates on the island. Aside from allowing for research and teaching, the campus will serve as a training ground for approximately 6,000 workers in green jobs, and will provide support for sustainable businesses and entrepreneurs through an incubator program.
The path to this project has been long and winding. Plenty of ideas for what to do with the island have been floated over the years, including more offbeat options like a supermax prison. While that was happening, the island–only reachable by ferry–became an increasingly exciting visitor destination despite its lack of development. But by 2019, there was chatter about building a center focused on fighting climate change. Despite some pushback over how the development will impact the island, it seems those who wanted the climate campus have at last won out, aided by a mayor who is laser-focused on his environmental action plan.
Construction of the campus is expected to start in 2025. Alongside Stony Brook, the consortium includes Georgia Institute of Technology, Pace University, IBM, Pratt Institute and Boston Consulting Group. Maurie McInnis, president of Stony Brook University, said that the university had the “vision, expertise and commitment” to anchor the project. She also praised the consortium model.
“There’s no one entity that’s going to be able to solve climate change and come up with the solutions we’re all going to need on its own,” she said. “[The campus] will be the go-to place to make progress on climate change and the solutions needed to respond to a changing planet.”
City officials said approximately $150 million in funding will come from previously allocated city capital funding. Another $100 million is from the Simons Foundation, headed by billionaire James H. Simons, and $50 million will be contributed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a longtime advocate for rebuilding the island. The other $400 million will be raised by the consortium; they’ll also cover operating costs. New Yorkers won’t bear the financial burden for this project.
If this center accomplishes its goals, not only will the face of New York City change tremendously, but it will be a major contribution to the global-wide study of climate change.
