The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Solar One have opened the Solar One Environmental Education Center, a two-story facility at the north waterfront end of Stuyvesant Cove Park in Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the 6,400-square-foot center will serve as both an educational hub and a model for coastal resiliency, featuring classrooms, community spaces, and offices. The development is located along the East River off East 23rd Street.
The building integrates advanced sustainable design elements including a rooftop solar array, battery storage, and modern flood protection. Constructed with eco-conscious materials such as thermally modified timber and limited concrete, the center is designed to withstand severe weather while minimizing its carbon footprint. The classrooms and event spaces will host K–12 STEM programming, teacher training, job fairs, and community workshops, with direct connections to the Stuyvesant Cove public open space and East River waterfront.
New Environmental Education Center. Via solar1.org.
As New York’s first ground-up solar and battery storage building, the facility will generate power through a 21kW solar array, enabling it to remain operational during outages and provide energy support to surrounding residents. Thousands of New Yorkers, including public school students, are expected to benefit from the programming, which focuses on sustainability, climate change, and green workforce development.
The closest subways from the center are the 6 train at the 23rd Street station and the 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W trains at the 14th Street–Union Square station. The facility also connects to the East River Greenway, offering direct pedestrian and cycling access.
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What a contrast.
That’s exciting and a great project, but it is not in Stuyvesant Town. Stuyvesant Town is an actual place, not an area on a map. It is those buildings you can see on the other side of the FDR Drive. Ironically, though, and something that you could have mentioned, is that Stuyvesant Town itself has installed the nation’s largest private dwelling solar array on its 22 acres of rooftops
Good point not in stuytown. Nice lil building tho, the small scale pavilion is rarely found in NYC fun to see
They should do this on the west side on the 79th Street Boat Basin renovation.
This building should not be there. We need as much grass and trees as possible. And a wall blocking at least some of the highway noise.
agreed, unless they’ll put a library (like LIC did)
This has been there for 25 years and before that it was a parking lot and before that an asphalt plant
I agree the building should not be there. How they got a hold of public space is a mystery. The last building they had in that space fell apart and was neglected. There should be trees and grass in that space.
Congratulations to Solar One on the rebuilding of their facility. The article fails to mention that they had a one-story building in that location five or so years ago before Stuyvesant Cove and East River Park were torn up for flood protection landfill. That mammoth project is ongoing, but seems completed around 23rd Street.
They really should have been that landfill development back in the 80’s.
Very contextual handsome, if not a bit odd, building that is, yes, in Stuytown.
Looking forward to taking a class!
The closest train is the L to 1st Ave.