Rendering courtesy of Studio Gang
Reimagining a more just and inclusive food system, the Marlboro Agricultural Education Center transforms the grounds of a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) campus into a welcoming hub for multigenerational education, job training, and community leadership in nutrition and urban agriculture.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and senior administration officials broke ground June 1 on the new $18.2 million Marlboro Agricultural Education Center at the New York City Housing Authority's (NYCHA) Marlboro Houses in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
The 9,900-sq.-ft. facility will include a rooftop greenhouse that supports raising fish and plants. Additionally, the greenhouses also will empower young adults in underserved communities to engage with local, sustainable food production and serve as learning labs for schoolchildren and visitors, according to a news release on NYC.gov., the city's official website.
The Marlboro Agriculture Education Center project is utilizing the design-build project delivery method, among the first of this kind since New York City's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) obtained authorization in 2019 for its use on capital projects.
The practice cuts a lengthy contracting step out of the traditional project delivery method that is historically used for city capital projects, while fostering increased minority- and women-owned business enterprise engagement and participation, and greatly shortening timelines.
"All New Yorkers deserve access to healthy, nutritious food — you can't have Whole Foods in Park Slope and junk food in Brownsville," Adams said. "This state-of-the-art agricultural education center will help us get closer to that goal, while providing an invaluable, resilient space that will bring sustainable food, jobs and education to this community.
"And best of all, thanks to the design-build contracting tool, we'll be able to finish this project far quicker and cheaper so this neighborhood and community can start using it sooner."
The center also will include an indoor market for the winter; a teaching kitchen that will offer cooking classes and demonstrations for seniors, teens and adults; and a multipurpose room for job training and other programs for the community.
Educational programming will include The Campaign Against Hunger's "Green Teens" internship and certificate programs, in addition to other partnerships with community schools, camps and non-profits.
Center Designed With Sustainability in Mind
The Marlboro Agricultural Education Center is slated to be constructed on West 11th Street between Avenue W and Avenue, noted NYC.gov.
A sustainable design is to be deployed using materials that can endure conditions of heavy use and require minimal maintenance over a life cycle of more than 60 years.
The Marlboro facility, which will meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards, also will be elevated to address the building's location within a coastal flood zone, and to provide spaces with more natural light and views. The greenhouse growing areas will be built on the second floor to maximize daylight and visibility.
Studio Gang, the international architecture and urban design practice founded and led by Jeanne Gang, is designing the project, which will be built by Consigli Construction Co. Inc., a leading construction firm and general contractor with offices from Maine to the Caribbean.
"Creating spaces that will provide the communities we serve with opportunities for continued growth, success and well-being is essential to Consigli's commitment to building beyond itself," said Laura Bush, the NYC Metro regional director for Consigli Construction. "We are proud to partner with the Adams administration and the city of New York to deliver this critically important resource."
NYC Pushed to Ease Restrictions On Design-Build Efforts
In May, New York City Deputy Mayor Joshi, City Comptroller Brad Lander and members of the mayor's Capital Process Reform Task Force were joined by labor, civic and construction industry leaders at City Hall to call on New York State to ease restrictions and kick off a "Let NYC Build Better, Faster, and Cheaper" campaign using contracting tools like design-build that other states around the U.S. and the private sector successfully utilize every day.
"Every neighborhood in New York City needs and deserves more green [spaces], and Marlboro Greenhouse will [supply that to] the Marlboro Houses year-round," Joshi noted. "It will be delivered two years early thanks to design-build, showing us all what is possible if New York has access to better tools to deliver projects faster and less expensively. Albany can [and must] grant New York the power to deliver projects like this citywide."
Thomas Foley, the city's DDC commissioner, added, "Using our most advanced construction tools, we are converting this space into a state-of-the-art urban agricultural center that will support local food production and will offer education, job training and internships on-site. For years, Mayor Adams has advocated for construction reform for projects like these, for other public buildings, and for billions of dollars in climate resiliency projects. Right now, as the state legislative session wraps up for 2024, is the time for simple, commonsense construction reform that will save years of work and millions of dollars."
Democratic New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar believes that young people from the Marlboro Houses and across the city will visit the greenhouse and fish farm to get firsthand experience in sustainable food production.
"More than growing delicious plant-based foods and fish, the center will grow and nurture the minds of generations of children, showing them that even the urban jungle of New York can be an epicenter of agriculture," she explained.
The project will not only provide Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood with a new community hub and source of fresh food production but also will create hundreds of good-paying union careers for tradespeople in the city through an agreed-upon project labor agreement, said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.
"We thank Mayor Adams and NYCHA for their commitment to and collaboration on projects like this one that enrich our city, uplift underserved communities, and improve the lives of hard-working New Yorkers," he added. "Our members look forward to playing a part in this initiative and pursuing the path to the middle class it paves for them and their families."
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