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Adams Admin­is­tra­tion Breaks Ground on New York Har­bor School Expan­sion on Gov­er­nors Island

Nov 12, 2024 9:49 am

New York City May­or Eric Adams, New York City School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty (SCA) Pres­i­dent and CEO Nina Kub­o­ta, New York City Pub­lic Schools Chan­cel­lor Melis­sa Aviles-Ramos, and Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man broke ground on a major expan­sion of the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School on Gov­er­nors Island on Novem­ber 7, 2024. The expan­sion will allow the school to bet­ter pre­pare young New York­ers for good-pay­ing green jobs by dou­bling the school’s cam­pus from two to four build­ings and adding new class­rooms, a com­pe­ti­tion-sized pool and gym­na­si­um, and lab­o­ra­to­ries designed to sup­port the school’s dis­tinc­tive mar­itime and envi­ron­men­tal cur­ricu­lum. The announce­ment builds on May­or Adams’ efforts to devel­op a ​“Har­bor of the Future” – a mul­ti­fac­eted ini­tia­tive announced by May­or Adams in his State of the City this year to reimag­ine New York City’s water­front to fuel 21^st-cen­tu­ry growth and innovation.

“We’re laser-focused on prepar­ing young New York­ers for good-pay­ing jobs of the future, and this his­toric expan­sion of the Har­bor School will allow us to do just that,” said May­or Adams. ​“The addi­tion­al class­room and train­ing space will help us ensure that our kids ben­e­fit from the 400,000 green jobs our city will host by 2040. Har­bor School grad­u­ates will work on the wind tur­bines that will pow­er 500,000 homes in our city, invent green tech­nolo­gies that we can’t even imag­ine yet, and more.”

“From the New York Cli­mate Exchange to the expan­sion of the Har­bor School, Gov­er­nors Island is proof of New York City’s lead­er­ship in cli­mate tech­nol­o­gy and edu­ca­tion,” said First Deputy May­or Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“The Har­bor School’s new facil­i­ties – and Gov­er­nors Island more broad­ly – con­tin­ue to show­case how edu­ca­tion, research, and indus­tri­al devel­op­ment func­tion togeth­er to bring good jobs to the five bor­oughs for the expand­ing cli­mate tech industry.”

“We say kids are ​‘inter­net natives’ – smarter and bet­ter versed than the rest of us on the way mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy works,” said Deputy May­or for Oper­a­tions Meera Joshi. ​“Well, they’re going to be ​‘cli­mate change natives’ too – bet­ter pre­pared than any gen­er­a­tion pri­or to take on the real­i­ties and chal­lenges of cli­mate change with the urgency it requires. That is in part thanks to inno­v­a­tive part­ner­ships like the Har­bor School, which will soon accom­mo­date more kids to learn in nature’s class­room. Thanks to the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty, the Trust For Gov­er­nors Island, and all our part­ners for mak­ing a high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion cen­ter­ing this vital life skill a reality.”

“The expan­sion of the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School rep­re­sents a bold step for­ward in our mis­sion to pro­vide stu­dents with unique, hands-on edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ences that pre­pare them for suc­cess­ful futures,” said New York City Pub­lic Schools Chan­cel­lor Melis­sa Aviles-Ramos. ​“By dou­bling the cam­pus size and enhanc­ing the school’s facil­i­ties, we are not only enrich­ing the aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney but also fos­ter­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of envi­ron­men­tal lead­ers and mar­itime experts right here in New York City.”

“We’re proud to improve and build on the orig­i­nal vision for the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School and look for­ward to see­ing how the expand­ed cam­pus will empow­er these excep­tion­al stu­dents to learn and expand their envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship,” said SCA Pres­i­dent and CEO Kub­o­ta. ​“Thanks to a strong col­lab­o­ra­tion between the SCA, New York City Pub­lic Schools, and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, this expan­sion will enable the school to serve even more stu­dents while becom­ing a valu­able resource for the broad­er community.”

“The Har­bor School is one of the gems of New York City, pro­vid­ing top notch edu­ca­tion and prepar­ing our next gen­er­a­tion of New York­ers in impor­tant indus­tries like mar­itime and the green econ­o­my,” said New York City Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion Pres­i­dent and CEO Andrew Kim­ball. ​“This expand­ed cam­pus will build on the ongo­ing suc­cess of the Har­bor School, and we look for­ward to these young peo­ple join­ing the work­force that will pow­er our ​‘Har­bor of the Future’ and careers across the five boroughs.”

“Today marks a tru­ly excit­ing moment in New York City’s growth as a leader in cli­mate solu­tions – over the past 14 years, thou­sands of young New York­ers have had trans­for­ma­tion­al edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ences on Gov­er­nors Island, using the Har­bor as a liv­ing class­room and receiv­ing high-qual­i­ty career train­ing in mar­itime and envi­ron­men­tal fields,” said Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man. ​“We are proud to col­lab­o­rate with our part­ners at the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty and New York City Pub­lic Schools to devel­op these new, state-of-the-art facil­i­ties, which will serve to expand oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents and empow­er the envi­ron­men­tal lead­ers of tomorrow.”

The Har­bor School pro­vides a col­lege prepara­to­ry edu­ca­tion built upon New York City’s mar­itime expe­ri­ence with a focus on envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship. With its part­ners – includ­ing the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project – the school devel­ops authen­tic activ­i­ties for its stu­dents on, around, and relat­ed to the water that cre­ates a sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty to New York Har­bor and devel­op a new gen­er­a­tion of mar­itime advo­cates, enthu­si­asts, work­ers, and deci­sion-mak­ers. The expan­sion includes the con­struc­tion of a new, state-of-the-art facil­i­ty that will fea­ture a pool, gym­na­si­um, and addi­tion­al lab space ded­i­cat­ed to career-tech­ni­cal train­ing and research. The SCA will also ren­o­vate Build­ing 555 – a des­ig­nat­ed land­mark struc­ture built in 1938 – to cre­ate 32,000 square feet of addi­tion­al class­room space. Togeth­er, these projects will expand the school’s facil­i­ties from two to four build­ings and add 445 new seats, sup­port­ed by fund­ing from the New York City Coun­cil and the Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­den­t’s Office.

Today’s announce­ment builds on the Adams admin­is­tra­tion’s ongo­ing efforts to devel­op New York Har­bor as the heart of the city’s green econ­o­my. In April 2023, May­or Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island unveiled the New York Cli­mate Exchange, a trans­for­ma­tive vision for a first-in-the-nation cli­mate research, edu­ca­tion, and jobs hub on Gov­er­nors Island that will cre­ate thou­sands of per­ma­nent jobs and $1 bil­lion in eco­nom­ic impact for the city. A cross-sec­tor con­sor­tium led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, the Exchange will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion, 400,000-square-foot cam­pus ded­i­cat­ed to research­ing and devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions that will be scaled across New York City and the world and that will equip New York­ers to hold the green jobs of the future. Open­ing in 2028, the New York Cli­mate Exchange will be ded­i­cat­ed to edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming, research, cli­mate tech incu­ba­tion, and pol­i­cy work aimed at advanc­ing cli­mate action in New York City and else­where around the world.

Addi­tion­al­ly, in Feb­ru­ary 2024, May­or Adams announced an up to $100 mil­lion invest­ment in the Cli­mate Inno­va­tion Hub at Brook­lyn Army Ter­mi­nal, part of the admin­is­tra­tion’s Green Econ­o­my Action Plan designed to help New York City host near­ly 400,000 green jobs by 2040. This new space will accel­er­ate com­mer­cial­iza­tion path­ways for cli­mate tech star­tups and oth­er green econ­o­my busi­ness­es. It will serve 150 star­tups over 10 years – gen­er­at­ing $2.6 bil­lion in eco­nom­ic impact and cre­at­ing 600 jobs – while pro­vid­ing local work­force train­ing and job place­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly for the local Sun­set Park community.

Fur­ther­more, in June 2024, May­or Adams broke ground on what will be the nation’s largest ded­i­cat­ed off­shore wind port at the South Brook­lyn Marine Ter­mi­nal in Sun­set Park, Brook­lyn. The project will accel­er­ate the clean ener­gy tran­si­tion, make New York City syn­ony­mous with off­shore wind, advance progress toward the state’s Cli­mate Lead­er­ship and Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­tec­tion Act goal to devel­op 9,000 megawatts of off­shore wind by 2035, and cre­ate a new indus­try with thou­sands of ​‘green-col­lar’ jobs on site and in the sup­ply chain. 

“The Har­bor School is a resource as unique and spe­cial as Gov­er­nors Island itself,” said New York State Sen­a­tor Andrew Gounardes. ​“This new expan­sion gives stu­dents even more oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn, play sports, and study our city’s nat­ur­al ecosys­tems in a one-of-kind envi­ron­ment. I’m glad to see oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple grow on Gov­er­nors Island, and I’m grate­ful to May­or Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island for mak­ing this possible.”

“We are com­mit­ted to open­ing all career paths for our chil­dren, and our his­toric expan­sion of the New York Har­bor School will give us a new arse­nal of tools to pre­pare them for good-pay­ing mar­itime careers,” said New York State Assem­bly­mem­ber Jenifer Rajku­mar. ​“New class space, lab­o­ra­to­ries, and oth­er facil­i­ties will allow stu­dents to immerse them­selves in this unique and excit­ing field. The expan­sion is part of our ​‘Har­bor of the Future’ plan, which will trans­form our water­front into a mod­ern hub of eco­nom­ic growth and inno­va­tion, gen­er­at­ing $95 bil­lion in eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty. We are chart­ing a course to sus­tain­able, inno­v­a­tive water­ways address­ing the needs of New Yorkers.”