Meet the Inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge Winners

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Clockwise from top left: Duro UAS's Nearshore Sonde, Just EcoCities' Tidal Planter, LAERO's Cycleau device, kelp farmed through Seaweed City's urban kelp farming infrastructure, RETI Center's Floating BlueBlocks Garden, and one of Object Territories Intertidal Objects.

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the win­ners of the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge, pre­sent­ed through its Liv­ing Lab pro­gram. Through this ini­tia­tive, the Trust makes the Island avail­able as a site for local small busi­ness­es, entre­pre­neurs, and non­prof­its to test and demon­strate urban cli­mate solu­tions for cities and their diverse communities.

Dubbed the Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge,” this ini­tial call for pro­pos­als sought projects that uti­lize water to help pow­er cli­mate solu­tions that grow blue and green jobs and cre­ate health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties. Each of the six New York City-based inno­va­tors will receive a site to demon­strate their projects, grant awards of up to $25,000, and access to a com­mon pool of addi­tion­al funds to sup­port pilot imple­men­ta­tion. Their pilot sites will also pro­vide valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with the Island’s rapid­ly grow­ing audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors through pub­lic demon­stra­tions, work­shops, train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, and oth­er initiatives.

Where some peo­ple see chal­lenges, New York­ers see oppor­tu­ni­ties, and Gov­er­nors Island’s Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge’ is the per­fect exam­ple of how New York­ers’ cre­ativ­i­ty and inge­nu­ity will con­tin­ue to shape our world,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. By giv­ing these cli­mate solu­tions a chance to pilot, we will con­tin­ue to grow New York City’s green econ­o­my, address cli­mate change, and begin to cre­ate the good-pay­ing, acces­si­ble green-col­lar’ jobs of the future.”

Build­ing on the recent­ly announced Green Econ­o­my Action Plan and the cre­ation of the New York Cli­mate Exchange on Gov­er­nors Island, I am excit­ed by today’s announce­ment and the selec­tion of six orga­ni­za­tions to par­tic­i­pate in the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic, and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Tor­res-Springer. New York City is and will con­tin­ue to be a leader in the green econ­o­my by enabling pilot pro­grams — like Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab — to test high-impact cli­mate tech, advanc­ing world-class research and devel­op­ment, and imple­ment­ing strate­gies that cre­ate both equi­ty and eco­nom­ic val­ue through green col­lar jobs.”

Gov­er­nors Island is the per­fect place to test and show­case cli­mate projects that will cre­ate a more sus­tain­able and equi­table city for all, and we are thrilled to be able to offer a total­ly unique envi­ron­ment to these six teams,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. The Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge win­ners rep­re­sent inno­v­a­tive water-based solu­tions being devel­oped by New York­ers, for New York­ers, and we can­not wait for them to share their work with Gov­er­nors Island’s engaged — and grow­ing — annu­al audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion people.”

We are thrilled to sup­port these inno­va­tors and to shine a light on how cli­mate solu­tions move from con­cept to pro­to­typ­ing to a scal­able prod­uct,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. These founders and non­prof­it lead­ers are work­ing cre­ative­ly and thought­ful­ly every day to improve the city’s rela­tion­ship with water. We are look­ing for­ward to all New York­er join­ing us on the Island this sum­mer for demon­stra­tions and work­shops led by these teams.”

Gov­er­nors Island is more than a spe­cial place in New York City. Now, it’s becom­ing a sym­bol of our val­ues and an incu­ba­tor for cli­mate solu­tions aimed at solv­ing the globe’s most press­ing chal­lenge. At a time when the impacts of the cli­mate cri­sis grow more appar­ent, the inno­v­a­tive pilot projects that will soon launch on the Island will undoubt­ed­ly move New York – and the world – for­ward as we work to make our city the epi­cen­ter of action,” said Dr. Stephen Ham­mer, CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. The Exchange could not be more proud to call Gov­er­nors Island home, great­ly val­ues our part­ner­ship, and looks for­ward to work­ing with part­ners across the five bor­oughs to address the cli­mate crisis.”

To address the cli­mate chal­lenges of the future, we must invest today in a diverse group of inno­va­tors work­ing on new projects and tech­nolo­gies that will pro­tect New York City’s ecosys­tem,” said Abby Jo Sigal, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Tal­ent and Work­force Devel­op­ment. The six win­ners of the Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge are just the ones we need to safe­guard our water­ways and har­bors. They will also cre­ate well-pay­ing green col­lar jobs, which is key to mak­ing our City more resilient, not just envi­ron­men­tal­ly but also eco­nom­i­cal­ly, for all New Yorkers.”

This cohort of pilot projects includes:

  • Duro UAS – A South Bronx-based com­pa­ny with the goal of improv­ing how envi­ron­men­tal data is col­lect­ed and shared through advanced, afford­able, and easy-to-use water mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems and data ser­vices. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their Nearshore Sonde, a portable water mon­i­tor­ing device and cloud-based data dashboard.
  • Just EcoC­i­ties – A nature-based solu­tions con­sul­tan­cy work­ing to improve water qual­i­ty, expand habi­tat, and pro­mote engage­ment with New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will part­ner with Bio­hab­i­tats, an eco­log­i­cal design firm whose mis­sion is to restore the Earth and inspire eco­log­i­cal stew­ard­ship, to pilot a Tidal Planter that cre­ates salt marsh while remov­ing pol­lu­tants from New York Harbor.
  • LÆRO – A small busi­ness found­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with experts across fields of water advo­ca­cy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and electro­mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, work­ing to reduce the lev­els of untreat­ed waste­water that enter New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot Cycleau, their com­pact grey­wa­ter treat­ment sys­tem at water refill sta­tions and restrooms. 
  • Object Ter­ri­to­ries – A crit­i­cal design prac­tice based in New York and Hong Kong that works at the inter­sec­tion of archi­tec­ture, land­scape, and urban­ism. Their pilot on Gov­er­nors Island will test their Inter­tidal Objects, habi­tat-friend­ly coastal pro­tec­tion units designed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture, Sci­ence, and Ecol­o­gy (CASE) at Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute, Fort Miller Group and after NATURE.
  • RETI Cen­ter – A Red Hook-based non­prof­it that works to edu­cate, train, and work with local youth, experts, pro­fes­sion­als, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to trans­form our coastal city from one that is dri­ven by fos­sil fuels to one bal­anc­ing equi­ty, ecol­o­gy, and econ­o­my. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their Float­ing Blue­Blocks Gar­dens, inte­grat­ed eco­log­i­cal sys­tems that can be installed in any body of water, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with thread collective.
  • Sea­weed City – A non­prof­it cit­i­zen sci­ence ini­tia­tive explor­ing the ben­e­fits of sea­weed aqua­cul­ture in New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their urban kelp farm­ing infra­struc­ture. The project is fis­cal­ly spon­sored by New­town Creek Alliance.

Of the select­ed pilots, 100 per­cent are local­ly based, 50 per­cent are women-led, and 33 per­cent are minor­i­ty-led. Pilots will be installed on Gov­er­nors Island over the com­ing months for peri­ods span­ning six to 18 months, with an inau­gur­al pub­lic Demo Day to be held in ear­ly sum­mer 2024. They will join ongo­ing pilot­ing projects led by Vycarb, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny work­ing to mea­sure and mit­i­gate car­bon diox­ide in New York Har­bor; Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny that trans­forms post-con­sumer plas­tics into upcy­cled prod­ucts through scal­able solar-pow­ered tech­nol­o­gy; and South Bronx Unite, a Bronx-based com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tion that is pilot­ing a street-lev­el air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing net­work. For more infor­ma­tion on the pilots, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​l​i​v​i​n​g-lab.

The Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram is a key com­po­nent of Pilot:NYC, an ini­tia­tive announced by Gov­er­nor Kathy Hochul and May­or Eric Adams as part of the New” New York Plan that seeks to make New York City a hub for urban inno­va­tion. The Pilot­ing Pro­gram includes two com­po­nents: the themed annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge and a gen­er­al rolling call. Through the annu­al chal­lenge, a select­ed cohort of com­pa­nies receives pilot­ing project sites, grant awards, deploy­ment sup­port, and pub­lic engage­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Trust also offers a year-round gen­er­al appli­ca­tion for self-fund­ed pilot­ing pro­pos­als across all dis­ci­plines. Non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, entre­pre­neurs, and start-ups are invit­ed to apply to the gen­er­al rolling call at any time at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​c​h​a​l​lenge.

The pilots announced today will com­ple­ment an exist­ing group of busi­ness­es and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions that are cur­rent­ly show­cas­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing Con Edi­son, GrowNYC, Earth Mat­ter NY, the Bee Con­ser­van­cy, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, and others.

Duro is thrilled to part­ner with Gov­er­nors Island to launch the first IoT (Inter­net of Things) water mon­i­tor­ing net­work in New York Har­bor. This excit­ing ini­tia­tive, fea­tur­ing a pub­lic data

dash­board and work­shop series, will gen­er­ate unprece­dent­ed insight into the Har­bor ecosys­tem, strength­en the exist­ing body of research, sup­port the growth of key­stone species, and much more,” said Bri­an Wil­son and Gabriel Fore­man, CEO and Vice Pres­i­dent, respec­tive­ly, at Duro UAS.

Just Ecoc­i­ties is thrilled to part­ner with Bio­hab­i­tats to pilot a Tidal Planter cli­mate solu­tion on

Gov­er­nors Island. The Tidal Planter will improve water qual­i­ty and expand salt marsh habitat,

with a mod­u­lar design that can be adapt­ed for water­ways through­out the region. We look for­ward to engag­ing with youth and com­mu­ni­ty groups in mon­i­tor­ing and main­te­nance of the planter, build­ing local capac­i­ty and train­ing the cli­mate work­force of the future,” said Jamie Ong, Found­ing Prin­ci­pal of Just Ecocities.

We’re excit­ed to show the pos­si­bil­i­ties of diver­si­fy­ing grey­wa­ter treat­ment across New York City, and to pilot­ing a scal­able solu­tion capa­ble of restor­ing access to safe water­fronts in some of New York’s most under­served neigh­bor­hoods,” said Noe­mi Flo­rea, founder and direc­tor of LÆRO.

RETI Cen­ter is proud and excit­ed to launch our Float­ing Blue­Blocks Gar­dens at Gov­er­nors Island. We see the cre­ation of nat­ur­al habi­tats and sup­port of bio­di­ver­si­ty as a cru­cial ele­ment in cli­mate adap­ta­tion. All vis­i­tors to the Island, no mat­ter their age or expe­ri­ence lev­el, are wel­come to come help us build and launch our gar­dens this sum­mer,” said Tim Gilman-Sev­cik, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of RETI Center.

Deutsche Bank Amer­i­c­as Foun­da­tion is a proud sup­port­er of the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab and con­grat­u­lates the win­ners of the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge. We are excit­ed by the pos­si­bil­i­ties of these pilot projects and the pos­i­tive impact they can bring to New York City’s vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties and beyond,” said Lisa Tal­ma, Vice Pres­i­dent of Phil­an­thropic Ini­tia­tives in the Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Finance Group at Deutsche Bank.

As a strong part­ner in ush­er­ing our state’s clean ener­gy tran­si­tion, we’re proud to sup­port The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s unique Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge ini­tia­tive that places New York City at the fore­front of cut­ting-edge research tack­ling the great­est chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change,” said Tim Caw­ley, Chair­man and CEO of Con Edi­son. These inno­v­a­tive projects will pave the way for a more sus­tain­able future for our city while boost­ing green jobs, eco­nom­ic growth, and health­i­er communities.”

As we con­tin­ue to work to close the racial wealth gap and address oth­er dis­par­i­ties that affect New York’s under­served neigh­bor­hoods, we must not ignore the role cli­mate issues can play in exac­er­bat­ing these inequal­i­ties through the ways they dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly harm com­mu­ni­ties of col­or,” said Valerie White, Senior Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of LISC NY. Pro­grams like the Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge on Gov­er­nors Island not only encour­age inno­va­tion that can pro­vide tan­gi­ble com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tric cli­mate ini­tia­tives but also offer diverse­ly owned start-ups access to key resources that will enable suc­cess. We look for­ward to see­ing the water-based solu­tions this cohort cre­ates and the ways their work will ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit New Yorkers.”

The New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust is proud to sup­port Gov­er­nors Island’s evo­lu­tion into a hub for prac­ti­cal, inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to the chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change. From improv­ing data col­lec­tion to exper­i­ment­ing with sea­weed aqua­cul­ture in New York City’s water­ways, the vari­ety and inge­nu­ity of these projects gives me hope,” said Arturo Gar­cia-Costas, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer, Local, Nation­al and Inter­na­tion­al Envi­ron­ment, The New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

At Ama­zon, we’re active­ly work­ing to reduce emis­sions to reach net zero car­bon by 2040, and are excit­ed to con­tin­ue our part­ner­ship with Gov­er­nors Island to show­case what sus­tain­able and resilient cities can look like. The emerg­ing busi­ness­es announced today are demon­strat­ing inno­v­a­tive approach­es to tack­ling the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis that are poised to scale, and we’re proud to sup­port their work as part of the Cli­mate Solu­tions chal­lenge,” said Car­ley Gra­ham Gar­cia, Head of Com­mu­ni­ty Affairs and Pub­lic Pol­i­cy, Ama­zon New York.

Today’s announce­ment marks an excit­ing step for­ward in Gov­er­nors Island’s growth as a resource for cli­mate demon­stra­tion and inno­va­tion. Announced in June 2023, the Liv­ing Lab is a new pro­gram led by the Trust that pro­vides a plat­form for part­ner­ships and pro­grams to ampli­fy cli­mate action. In addi­tion to the Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram, the Liv­ing Lab includes a cli­mate field trip pro­gram launch­ing this spring and a com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space for cli­mate on the Island. The Liv­ing Lab is made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Deutsche Bank, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, LISC, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

The New York Cli­mate Exchange, a research and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a cross-sec­tor con­sor­tium of uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es, and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, was announced as the anchor part­ner for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions by May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island in April 2023. The Exchange will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion, 400,000-square-foot cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island 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. The Exchange will also cre­ate thou­sands of per­ma­nent green jobs and gen­er­ate $1 bil­lion in fis­cal impact for New York City.

Gov­er­nors Island Announces Spring 2024 Events

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Photo by Sean Jamar

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island today announced the return of two icon­ic spring events to Gov­er­nors Island: the annu­al Egg Hunt and Earth Day cel­e­bra­tions. The Egg Hunt will fea­ture 50,000 eggs hid­den around Gov­er­nors Island and take place on Sat­ur­day, March 30, 2024, from 10am to 3pm. The Earth Day Cel­e­bra­tion, high­light­ing the impor­tance of native plants with stew­ard­ship activ­i­ties, arts, and edu­ca­tion, will take place on Sat­ur­day, April 20, 2024, from 10am to 3pm. 

We’re look­ing for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing spring on Gov­er­nors Island with the return of these two fan-favorite events,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. Egg Hunt and Earth Day both pro­vide vis­i­tors with incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore our 120 acres of open space and come togeth­er to cel­e­brate the return of warm weath­er. Whether you’re com­ing out to hunt for eggs or help us cre­ate native plant habi­tats, we can’t wait to see you on the Island this spring.” 

The Friends of Gov­er­nors Island is excit­ed to wel­come vis­i­tors to the Island this sea­son for two spec­tac­u­lar spring pro­grams: our 2nd annu­al Egg Hunt on March 30 and our Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion on April 20,” said Pat­ti Davis, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. These free, fam­i­ly-friend­ly pub­lic events high­light all that is spe­cial and unique about Gov­er­nors Island with fun-filled activ­i­ties, tours, and oppor­tu­ni­ties to give back.”

Gov­er­nors Island Egg Hunt

Back for a sec­ond year, this pop­u­lar spring­time event will see 50,000 can­dy-filled eggs spread across sev­er­al areas of Gov­er­nors Island, along with an Island-wide scav­enger hunt that every­one can take a crack at and an addi­tion­al hunt for chil­dren ages 5 and under. The cel­e­bra­tion will take place on Sat­ur­day, March 30, 2024, from 11am to 3pm in Colonels Row and will also include per­for­mances from Bub­bledad and Won­der­Spark Pup­pets, spring-themed arts and crafts with Red Hook Art Project, Meet the Chick­ens” with Earth Mat­ter NY, and more to be announced. Food will be avail­able for pur­chase onsite from Gov­er­nors Island ven­dors Mak­i­na Café and Lit­tle Eva’s, along­side food trucks includ­ing ANAO’s Caribbean Fla­vors, Yan­kee Doo­dles, Par­adise Taquil­la, and Deploy Cof­fee. Vis­i­tors will also be able to meet and take pic­tures with a Spring Bunny. 

The egg hunt is first come, first served as sup­plies last, and will take place con­tin­u­ous­ly through­out the day. No pre-reg­is­tra­tion is required, and the event is rain or shine. The Gov­er­nors Island Egg Hunt is co-pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island, with gen­er­ous sup­port from Tony’s Cho­colone­ly. Addi­tion­al sup­port pro­vid­ed by New York Cares. 

Earth Day on Gov­er­nors Island

Gov­er­nors Island’s third annu­al Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion will cel­e­brate the pow­er of native plants through free edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties and work­shops for all ages, guid­ed tours through the Island’s open space, a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry mur­al inspired by the rela­tion­ship between milk­weed and Monarch but­ter­flies, and vol­un­teer stew­ard­ship projects. The fes­tiv­i­ties will take place on Sat­ur­day, April 20, 2024, from 10am to 3pm, and will also include cyan­otype print­ing activ­i­ties, seed ball work­shops, free bike lessons with Bike New York, and more.

Earth Day on Gov­er­nors Island is co-pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island, with pro­gram­ming sup­port from Stu­dent Con­ser­va­tion Asso­ci­a­tion, Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Wind Sup­port, Bike New York, Earth Mat­ter NY, the Nation­al Park Ser­vice, and Bee Con­ser­van­cy. Earth Day is spon­sored by AECOM, Dai­wa Cap­i­tal Mar­kets Amer­i­ca Inc., and Lazard. Gen­er­ous sup­port for Gov­er­nors Island’s green spaces is pro­vid­ed by Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies and Black­stone Char­i­ta­ble Fund.

2024 Ice Sculp­ture Show Recap

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Jurors Council Member Chi Ossé and Jenna Lyons with artist Josef Pinlac's sculpture

Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts are pleased to announce artist Lovie Pignata’s Smit­ten sculp­ture as the cham­pi­on of the Third Annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show, held on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 3rd on Gov­er­nors Island. The win­ning sculp­ture depicts two cozy mit­tens with knit details touch­ing to form a heart, ref­er­enc­ing the begin­ning stages of love in the cold win­ter sea­son. On Feb­ru­ary 14th in Times Square, the sculp­ture will be real­ized as a large-scale instal­la­tion carved by Okamo­to Stu­dio as part of the dis­tric­t’s Valentine’s Day Events, where vis­i­tors will cel­e­brate love with sur­prise pro­pos­als, wed­dings, and vow renew­al cer­e­monies on the Square’s icon­ic Red Steps. 

Lovie Pignata’s ode to new­ly kin­dled love, Smit­ten, was select­ed by a jury pan­el includ­ing cre­ative agent at large and media per­son­al­i­ty Jen­na Lyons, writer and edi­tor Miya Lee, New York City Coun­cil Mem­ber Chi Ossé. Run­ner ups includ­ed Aziki­we Mohammeds King Kong work, which won People’s Choice for the 10-foot-tall inter­pre­ta­tion of King Kong. Art Doman­tay and Rober­to Flo­res were award­ed Most Ambi­tious for their mul­ti-dimen­sion­al, kinet­ic heart sculp­ture titled Move Me, Rock Me Until I Break/​My Move­ment, My Heart acti­vat­ed by human touch. The Artist’s Choice award went to Sal­ly Twin, whose sculp­ture Game of Love por­trays a dynam­ic take on shuf­fle­board, allow­ing vis­i­tors to phys­i­cal­ly inter­act with the ice sculpture’s playable pieces. 

The 2024 Artist Final­ists include: 

  • Art Doman­tay and Rober­to Flo­res (@domantayart)
  • Aziki­we Mohammed (@misterace12)
  • Kate­ri­na Sokolovskaya (@katerina.sokolovskaya.art)
  • Lloyd Fos­ter (@_lloydfoster)
  • Zeel­ie Brown (@zeel­iebrownlovesy­ou)
  • Lovie Pig­na­ta (@iLovieNY) 
  • Josef Pin­lac (@Istillheartnewyork)
  • Paras­too Aho­van (@parastooahovan)
  • Aki­ra Yoshimu­ra (@akirayoshimura_)
  • Sal­ly Twin (@thesallybeauty)

The third annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show was pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts, in part­ner­ship with the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. Gen­er­ous sup­port pro­vid­ed by New York Water Taxi.

Times Square Arts will present Smit­ten” on Feb­ru­ary 14th at the annu­al Love in Times Square event where real life love sto­ries unfold in front of the win­ning sculp­ture. Cou­ples will tie the knot in Duffy Square; renew vows on the Red Steps; and sur­prise mar­riage pro­pos­als under the icon­ic Amer­i­can Eagle screen. Click here for more information.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts Announce Final­ists for Third Annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show

Today, Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts announce select­ed final­ists and jury mem­bers for Gov­er­nors Island’s third annu­al Ice Sculp­ture Show, set to take place on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 3, 2024, from 12 to 5p.m. This unique annu­al event pro­vides New York­ers and vis­i­tors from around the world with the sin­gu­lar oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence live ice carv­ing along­side the open space, and cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and his­toric resources and attrac­tions that Gov­er­nors Island offers year-round. The fes­tive win­ter event will coin­cide with the Times Square Arts’ annu­al Love in Times Square cel­e­bra­tion on Feb­ru­ary 14, 2024, which cel­e­brates Valentine’s Day with wed­dings, sur­prise pro­pos­als and vow renewals.

The Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show is pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts, with lead sup­port from the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. Gen­er­ous sup­port for the event is pro­vid­ed by New York Water Taxi.

This year’s esteemed jury pan­el that will select the win­ners includes cre­ative agent at large and cast mem­ber of Bravo’s The Real House­wives of New York City Jen­na Lyons, writer and edi­tor Miya Lee, Chair of the New York City Coun­cil Com­mit­tee on Cul­tur­al Affairs, Libraries, and Inter­na­tion­al Inter­group Rela­tions Coun­cil Mem­ber Chi Ossé, and Hol­lis Kam, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Peo­ple and Cul­ture at Times Square Alliance and decade-long ordained wed­ding offi­ciant for Love in Times Square.

2024 Ice Sculp­ture Show Finalists:

  • Art Doman­tay and Rober­to Flo­res (@domantayart) — Doman­tay is known for his fab­ri­ca­tion work on ambi­tious pub­lic art projects. . In his col­lab­o­ra­tion with Flo­res, they pro­pose a mul­ti-dimen­sion­al, kinet­ic heart sculp­ture acti­vat­ed by human touch.
  • Aziki­we Mohammed (@misterace12) — As a native New York­er, Mohammed plans to depict the noto­ri­ous King Kong, pay­ing homage to the ape’s tale as an immi­grant and his com­pli­cat­ed yet leg­endary love sto­ry with New York City.
  • Kate­ri­na Sokolovskaya (@katerina.sokolovskaya.art)— For her ethe­re­al con­cept, hands and legs emerge from a cloud as two hid­den peo­ple embrace with­in it. Sokolovskaya aims to take an abstract and escapist approach to the theme of love.
  • Lloyd Fos­ter (@_lloydfoster) — Fos­ter fre­quent­ly fea­tures angels in his work, and plans to use this motif as a sym­bol of love for his art piece. Hearts will replace the angel’s wings for his Love Angels” sculpture.
  • Zeel­ie Brown (@zeel­iebrownlovesy­ou) — Brown pos­es a sculp­ture that reflects her focus on Black love, soul, and New York City’s nat­ur­al and archi­tec­tur­al land­scapes. The piece aims to instill passers­by with a sense of free­dom, love, and con­nec­tion to nature and place.
  • Lovie Pig­na­ta (@iLovieNY) — For her piece titled Smit­ten,” Pig­na­ta depicts two cozy mit­tens with knit details touch­ing to form a heart, ref­er­enc­ing the begin­ning stages of love in the win­try months.
  • Josef Pin­lac (@Istillheartnewyork)— Two hands con­join to form a heart for Pinlac’s work — a now viral world­wide sym­bol stem­ming from Japan — in which vis­i­tors have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to step inside the frame for a spe­cial moment of love. Pin­lac is a mem­ber of Con Artist Col­lec­tive in the Low­er East Side.
  • Paras­too Aho­van (@parastooahovan) — Ahovan’s design rep­re­sents a tree in an abstract form to sug­gest the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of life and love. Each branch and leaf is sym­bol­ic of growth and life’s mean­der­ing jour­ney, while the roots delve into the rich soil of tra­di­tion and resilience.
  • Aki­ra Yoshimu­ra (@akirayoshimura_) — Yoshimu­ra demon­strates his love for New York City where he met his wife and friends with an ode in the shape of the King and Queen of hearts — the Queen’s card depict­ing the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and the King’s card don­ning a quin­tes­sen­tial NYC street vend­ing cart.
  • Sal­ly Twin (@thesallybeauty) — Twin’s Game of Love” is a dynam­ic take on love and the game of shuf­fle­board, allow­ing vis­i­tors to phys­i­cal­ly inter­act with the sculpture’s playable pieces for an immer­sive experience.

For the third win­ter sea­son in a row we have been able to offer New York­ers and vis­i­tors a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to wit­ness live ice carv­ing and to expe­ri­ence inter­ac­tive pub­lic art right here on the Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. The Ice Sculp­ture Show is a unique exam­ple of all the fun win­ter activ­i­ties that vis­i­tors can enjoy dur­ing the cold­er sea­son. We wel­come vis­i­tors of all ages to enjoy music and warm drinks, while expe­ri­enc­ing the thrill of carv­ing ice live with a chainsaw.”

Gov­er­nors Island has become home to a pletho­ra of unique and engag­ing pub­lic arts pro­gram­ming, allow­ing vis­i­tors to expe­ri­ence and dis­cov­er the cre­ative vision­ar­ies from all over the world that inno­vate and design on the Island,” said Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor of Arts & Cul­ture for the Trust. We can­not wait to see what this incred­i­ble group of select­ed artists cre­ates and look for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­i­tors to vote on their favorite ice carved works while get­ting to expe­ri­ence a one-of-a-kind arts expe­ri­ence on the Island.”

We can’t wait to see the win­ning design melt hearts in Times Square and become the spark­ly and ephemer­al anchor for our super­sized cel­e­bra­tion of love on Valentine’s Day,” said Jean Cooney, VP of Arts & Cul­ture for the Times Square Alliance.

Ten final­ist artists were cho­sen and each final­ist was award­ed $2,000 and paired with a pro­fes­sion­al ice carv­er from Okamo­to Stu­dio, where sculp­tures will be carved in a free pub­lic event on Gov­er­nors Island on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 3, 2024, from 12 to 5 p.m. Vis­i­tors are invit­ed to wit­ness this real-time ice carv­ing from 12 to 2 p.m., vote on their favorite sculp­ture for the People’s Choice Award: from 2 to 2:30 p.m., and enjoy an awards cer­e­mo­ny and recep­tion from 2:30 to 5 p.m. This year’s Ice Sculp­ture show will take place in his­toric Colonels Row and will also fea­ture the district’s lawn games, fire pits, and art exhi­bi­tions, along with food and drink year-round Gov­er­nors Island ven­dor Mak­i­na Café and select addi­tion­al food trucks.

A larg­er-scale ver­sion of the win­ning sculp­ture will then be carved and installed by Okamo­to Stu­dio in Times Square as a visu­al anchor for the district’s annu­al Valentine’s Day events, where New York­ers and vis­i­tors alike will cel­e­brate love through sur­prise pro­pos­als, wed­dings, and a vow renew­al cer­e­mo­ny on the Square’s icon­ic Red Steps. Sub­mis­sion links to be a part of the fes­tiv­i­ties are below:

Dur­ing the win­ter months, Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Trust for Gov­er­nors Island-oper­at­ed fer­ries run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org. For the event on Feb­ru­ary 3, spe­cial one-day ser­vice will be pro­vid­ed from Red Hook/​Atlantic Basin and Pier 6/​Brooklyn Bridge Park to Gov­er­nors Island, with tick­ets and sched­ules to be avail­able on Gov­er­nors Island’s web­site in the days lead­ing up to the event.

Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, old­er adults ages 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time.

NYC Fer­ry is tem­porar­i­ly bypass­ing Gov­er­nors Island for sev­er­al weeks due to planned main­te­nance. NYC Fer­ry rid­ers trav­el­ing to Gov­er­nors Island from Brook­lyn can take the fer­ry to Wall Street/​Pier 11 and trans­fer to Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries at 10 South Street.

Gov­er­nors Island’s award-win­ning park is open to the pub­lic every day, along with recre­ation activ­i­ties like bike rentals, a Com­mu­ni­ty Climb­ing Boul­der, Ham­mock Grove, The Hills, Pic­nic Point, and more. Gov­er­nors Island Arts pub­lic art com­mis­sions, includ­ing work from Duke Riley, Sam Van Aken, Rachel Whiteread, Mark Dion, Sheila Berg­er, and Mark Hand­forth are also cur­rent­ly on view through­out the Island.

This win­ter also marks the return of Win­ter Dog Days, where dogs are allowed on Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly from Decem­ber 1 through the end of April. Dogs must be leashed while on Gov­er­nors Island except for in the Win­ter Dog Park, locat­ed in Colonels Row.

Gov­er­nors Island 2023 Year in Review

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The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island are excit­ed to release our 2023 Year in Review. From ground­break­ing arts and cul­ture to incred­i­ble events and cel­e­bra­tions to major mile­stones in cre­at­ing a hub for cli­mate edu­ca­tion and research, 2023 was an unfor­get­table year on Gov­er­nors Island, and we could­n’t have done it with­out you. Read on for high­lights, and click here to read the full report.

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Mayor Eric Adams announces the selection of the New York Climate Exchange. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.

INNO­VA­TION IN CLI­MATE & THE ENVIRONMENT

Cities around the world are becom­ing increas­ing­ly con­front­ed with the impacts of cli­mate change. In 2023, Gov­er­nors Island made tremen­dous progress in the vision for a Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, announc­ing the selec­tion of the New York Cli­mate Exchange as the ini­tia­tive’s anchor insti­tu­tion. We also made his­to­ry in New York Har­bor with the announce­ment of our new hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry, set­ting sail in sum­mer 2024, and launched a new plat­form to ampli­fy cli­mate action. Read more →

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Kite flying at Picnic Point. Photo by Sean Jamar

OPEN SPACE FOR ALL NEW YORKERS

Cities around the world are becom­ing increas­ing­ly con­front­ed with the impacts of cli­mate change. In 2023, Gov­er­nors Island made tremen­dous progress in the vision for a Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, announc­ing the selec­tion of the New York Cli­mate Exchange as the ini­tia­tive’s anchor insti­tu­tion. We also made his­to­ry in New York Har­bor with the announce­ment of our new hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry, set­ting sail in sum­mer 2024, and launched a new plat­form to ampli­fy cli­mate action. Read more →

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Performance by Taiwanese American Arts Council at House Fest 2023. Photo by Lucas Van Cott

EXPAND­ED CUL­TUR­AL EXPERIENCES

Gov­er­nors Island is a hub for New York City’s most unique arts and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences. In 2023, Gov­er­nors Island Arts expand­ed its pro­gram­ming, wel­comed new pub­lic art com­mis­sions, cel­e­brat­ed an aston­ish­ing 10 months of Charles Gaines’s Mov­ing Chains, and host­ed the largest cohort ever of sea­son­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence in Nolan Park and Colonels Row. Read more →

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LMCC's Arts Center at Governors Island. Photo by Julienne Schaer

A GROW­ING YEAR-ROUND COMMUNITY

Gov­er­nors Island is home to a diverse group of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants that enliv­en the Island year-round. Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island grant­ed artist res­i­den­cies and pre­sent­ed three exhi­bi­tions, QC NY wel­comed 100,000 vis­i­tors, the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture expand­ed their res­i­den­cy pro­gram­ming year-round, and more. Read more →

Meet the New Work­ing Dogs of Gov­er­nors Island

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Atlas (left) and Reed (right), photos by Sarma Ozols

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the arrival of the newest mem­bers of the Island’s work­ing dog team – Atlas and Reed. Atlas is a two-year-old blue mer­le bor­der col­lie, while Reed is a five-month-old bor­der col­lie pup­py. They join the Trust’s two vet­er­an bor­der col­lie employ­ees, Chip and Aspen. The four pups will work togeth­er to help con­trol the geese pop­u­la­tion on the Island and pre­vent the birds from befoul­ing pub­lic areas.

Our beau­ti­ful lawns and pub­lic spaces would not be in the amaz­ing con­di­tion they are today with­out the efforts of our work­ing dogs,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. Atlas and Reed are wel­come addi­tions to the team, and we look for­ward to watch­ing all four mem­bers of our work­ing dog team bound around our cam­pus, keep­ing us free of geese and allow­ing our vis­i­tors to enjoy our pris­tine green spaces.”

Ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff!” said Atlas and Reed, Gov­er­nors Island’s newest work­ing dogs, in a joint state­ment express­ing their col­lec­tive excite­ment about join­ing the team.

Atlas has already begun chas­ing geese on the Island sev­er­al days a week, and Reed will offi­cial­ly begin his full-time employ­ment on his first birth­day. Right now, Reed is get­ting accus­tomed to rid­ing the fer­ry back and forth, train­ing along­side his new col­leagues, and going on adven­tures. All of the work­ing dogs are res­cues; Reed, Chip, and Aspen come to Gov­er­nors Island from the Mid-Atlantic Bor­der Col­lie Res­cue, a bou­tique breed-spe­cif­ic res­cue unique­ly qual­i­fied to improve the lives of mis­placed bor­der col­lies by plac­ing them into homes match­ing the indi­vid­ual needs of each dog. You can learn more about their work by vis­it­ing https://​mabcr​.org/.

Reed is named in hon­or of the late Jim Reed, a long­time mem­ber of the Gov­er­nors Island fam­i­ly who was intri­cate­ly involved in build­ing and car­ing for the Island’s park and grounds – includ­ing hir­ing” the first pack of work­ing dogs in 2015 to humane­ly keep vis­it­ing geese off of the Island’s lawns and pub­lic spaces.

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island tried many dif­fer­ent meth­ods of goose con­trol and found work­ing dogs to be the most sus­tain­able, humane, and adorable solu­tion. Herd­ing dogs like bor­der col­lies make great guardians against flocks of geese. Their nat­ur­al herd­ing instincts urge them to con­trol, but nev­er to harm, large groups of geese, effec­tive­ly chas­ing the birds away. While herd­ing dogs make for a pow­er­ful goose deter­rent, geese are per­sis­tent, and so the Island’s pooches must remain ever vig­i­lant. The dogs take turns stay­ing overnight on the Island, typ­i­cal­ly mak­ing the rounds (with a human care­tak­er in tow) at dawn and dusk daily. 

You can fol­low the work of these dogs at their offi­cial Insta­gram page, @giworkingdogs.

Atlas, Reed, Chip, and Aspen aren’t the only pups who can take advan­tage of Gov­er­nors Island’s numer­ous cul­tur­al offer­ings. The Island’s Win­ter Dog Days run through April 30, 2024, with dogs wel­comed to vis­it Gov­er­nors Island every week­day with their human com­pan­ions begin­ning at 10:00 a.m. This win­ter the Island fea­tures an expand­ed off-leash dog park open dai­ly in Colonels Row with plen­ty of space for dogs to run and play out­side and maybe even chase a few geese of their own.

Gov­er­nors Island to Host Inau­gur­al Win­ter Sol­stice Celebration

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The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced today that it will host its inau­gur­al Win­ter Sol­stice Cel­e­bra­tion on Decem­ber 16, 2023. Come cel­e­brate the short­est day of the year and the rebirth of the win­ter sea­son with a (short) day-long fes­ti­val fea­tur­ing art instal­la­tions, per­for­mances, a scav­enger hunt, and more, all free of charge. The event will take place from 12:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

The Gov­er­nors Island Win­ter Sol­stice Cel­e­bra­tion will cul­mi­nate in Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin’s Sol­stice Species Sashay, a lantern parade fea­tur­ing beats by Fogo Azul — New York City’s most pow­er­ful women, trans, and non-bina­ry com­mu­ni­ty drum­line — and pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts. 

Even the short­est day of the year is a fan­tas­tic time to vis­it Gov­er­nors Island and join us for a day of free fun for the entire com­mu­ni­ty,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. This cel­e­bra­tion, kick­ing off the week of the sol­stice, will fea­ture inno­v­a­tive and provoca­tive per­for­mances and instal­la­tions along­side the tra­di­tion­al fun activ­i­ties Gov­er­nors Island is known for, and we invite all New York­ers to join us for this won­der­ful inau­gur­al event.”

Vis­i­tors com­ing to the event can enjoy food, fire pits, and games at Colonels Row, DJ sets from the Low­er East­side Girls Club, a col­lab­o­ra­tive art activ­i­ty with Red Hook Art Project, the open­ing of the House to Sky win­ter art exhi­bi­tion, a Gov­er­nors Island Nature Scav­enger Hunt, a work­shop and per­for­mance from Cora Dance, guid­ed walk­ing tours with the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island, and the open­ing of the com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven, col­lab­o­ra­tive art instal­la­tion Pag­gank Wik (Nut Island Home).

The Sol­stice Species Sashay will take place at 3:30 p.m. The event was cre­at­ed by Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin, a trans woman artist liv­ing in New York City. Her prac­tice includes cre­ation and cura­tion of visu­al art, music, and the­ater. Her art has recent­ly been shown at Toma­to Mouse Gallery, Spring/​Break Art Fair, Mizu­ma and Kips and Stephen St Gallery. She received her arts edu­ca­tion at Tulane Uni­ver­si­ty. Sol­stice Species Sashay fea­tures Fogo Azul, New York City’s most pow­er­ful women, trans, and non-bina­ry com­mu­ni­ty drum­line. This is third in a tril­o­gy of island species cel­e­bra­to­ry parades Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin has brought to Gov­er­nors Island this year.

Pag­gank Wik (Nut Island Home) will open at 3:00 p.m. This will be a struc­ture built from a com­bi­na­tion of var­i­ous types of elm, cedar, chest­nut, and ever­greens all har­vest­ed from Gov­er­nors Island. Its design is inspired by the orig­i­nal inhab­i­tants of the Island’s ancient dwellings, known as Wig­wam. Pag­gank wik is being installed by a semi-elu­sive local sto­ry artist with the spir­i­tu­al sup­port of fel­low local artists of the First Nations/​Native American/​Indigenous com­mu­ni­ties, includ­ing a group of Elders who sparked the idea and the enthu­si­asm for learn­ing to build off the land expressed by the com­mu­ni­ty. This struc­ture is pre­sent­ed for every­one to expe­ri­ence an ancient way of liv­ing designed by orig­i­nal inhab­i­tants of this and the sur­round­ing islands and will be on view through the spring.

The House to Sky win­ter art exhib­it will open dur­ing the event and will be on view through March 30, 2024. This instal­la­tion includes sev­er­al works by Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin and oth­er col­lab­o­ra­tors, includ­ing Ben Eden, Nicole Schonitzer, Alexan­der Zev, and Chelsea Browne.

Pre­pare to get spir­it­ed away via pro­jec­tion art from Camil­la Padgitt-Coles, Giselle Ange­les, and more artists. The Pro­jec­tion Par­ty at Liggett Arch will kick off at 4:00 p.m. and will illu­mi­nate and ani­mate the arch­way and walls of his­toric Liggett Hall in the most beau­ti­ful, mov­ing, and col­or­ful ways.

Dur­ing the win­ter months, Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 7am to 6pm. Trust for Gov­er­nors Island-oper­at­ed fer­ries run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. Dur­ing the win­ter months, dogs are per­mit­ted on Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly begin­ning at 10am. Dogs require indi­vid­ual free fer­ry reser­va­tions, avail­able online. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, seniors 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly on the South Brook­lyn route. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it www.ferry.nyc.

May­or Eric Adams Announces NYC Receives $7.5 Mil­lion in Fed­er­al Fund­ing to Elec­tri­fy Gov­er­nors Island Ferry

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Rendering by Elliott Bay Design Group

New York City May­or Eric Adams today announced that New York City has been award­ed more than $10 mil­lion in U.S. Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion fund­ing to sup­port fer­ry oper­a­tions serv­ing Gov­er­nors Island and Stat­en Island. One $7.5 mil­lion grant will fund the instal­la­tion of shore­side rapid charg­ing infra­struc­ture to sup­port the ful­ly elec­tric oper­a­tions of the new hybrid-elec­tric Gov­er­nors Island Fer­ry announced by May­or Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island in March 2023. The oth­er grant, for $3 mil­lion, will fund the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of a New York City Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (DOT) off­site stor­age facil­i­ty sup­port­ing 247 oper­a­tions of the Stat­en Island Ferry.

The new, hybrid-elec­tric Gov­er­nors Island Fer­ry will be the first ves­sel of its kind to pro­vide pub­lic trans­porta­tion with­in New York Har­bor, elim­i­nat­ing 800 tons of car­bon emis­sions per year. Along with the nation-lead­ing Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions com­ing to Gov­er­nors Island, anchored by the New York Cli­mate Exchange announced in April 2023, May­or Adams and the Trust are estab­lish­ing Gov­er­nors Island as a nation­al hub for green inno­va­tion. The upgrades to Stat­en Island Fer­ry infra­struc­ture fol­low the Adams administration’s agree­ment with the Marine Engi­neers’ Ben­e­fi­cial Asso­ci­a­tion — the city’s first con­tract with Stat­en Island Fer­ry licensed offi­cers since 2010 — help­ing deliv­er the reli­able, 247 fer­ry ser­vice Stat­en Islanders and all rid­ers deserve.

New York City’s water­ways are key arter­ies for our city — and the $10 mil­lion fed­er­al invest­ment we have deliv­ered for our fer­ry sys­tems today will strength­en this smart, enjoy­able way to enjoy the ride from point A to point B,” said May­or Adams. With anoth­er major win for the Stat­en Island Fer­ry, our admin­is­tra­tion is help­ing Stat­en Islanders get to work in the morn­ing and home to their fam­i­lies in the evening. At the same time, we are putting inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy to work — rein­forc­ing Gov­er­nors Island as a nation-lead­ing cen­ter of cli­mate inno­va­tion and wel­com­ing this first-of-its-kind pub­lic, elec­tric ves­sel to pro­vide clean­er air in New York Har­bor. We are grate­ful to the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion and to our fed­er­al, state, and city part­ners who joined us in advo­cat­ing for this invest­ment in New York City.”

As we look to sig­nif­i­cant­ly scale the use of our water­ways for fun and freight, we are excit­ed to ben­e­fit from this invest­ment from the Biden admin­is­tra­tion to sup­port Stat­en Island Fer­ry oper­a­tions and intro­duce the first 100 per­cent elec­tric pub­lic fer­ry in New York’s Har­bor, serv­ing trips to Gov­er­nors Island,” said Deputy May­or for Oper­a­tions Meera Joshi. We appre­ci­ate the sup­port from Sen­a­tor Schumer, Sen­a­tor Gilli­brand, and the New York City con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion in work­ing to secure funds from the Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law.”

Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to grow as an unpar­al­leled resource for edu­ca­tion, open space, and resilien­cy right in the mid­dle of New York Har­bor,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment, and Work­force Maria Tor­res-Springer. This fed­er­al grant from the Biden admin­is­tra­tion will help bring a state-of-the-art, elec­tric fer­ry to our waters — reduc­ing emis­sions, sup­port­ing green infra­struc­ture, and fur­ther­ing New York City’s com­mit­ment to lead in the area of cli­mate resilien­cy. I thank Sen­a­tor Schumer, Sen­a­tor Gilli­brand, and our con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion for their part­ner­ship in bring­ing fur­ther fed­er­al invest­ments to New York City.”

As Gov­er­nors Island grows as a mod­el for sus­tain­able urban envi­ron­ments, we are proud to be able to make this crit­i­cal invest­ment that will equip New York Har­bor with its first ever elec­tric pas­sen­ger fer­ry,” said Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man. With this grant, the shore­side charg­ing sta­tion pow­er­ing our new fer­ry will serve hun­dreds of thou­sands of vis­i­tors each year, while also cham­pi­oning envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. We are thank­ful to the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, our part­ner May­or Eric Adams, and allies like Sen­a­tor Kirsten Gilli­brand and Sen­a­tor Chuck Schumer. Togeth­er, we will make the voy­age to Gov­er­nors Island clean­er and green­er than ever before.”

The Stat­en Island Fer­ry is the busiest pas­sen­ger-only fer­ry ser­vice in the world — pro­vid­ing safe, reli­able, and afford­able tran­sit to near­ly 24 mil­lion pas­sen­gers each year,” said DOT Com­mis­sion­er Yda­nis Rodriguez. This his­toric invest­ment from the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion will enable DOT to reha­bil­i­tate the stor­age facil­i­ty that hous­es spare fer­ry parts and dock build­ing mate­ri­als, known as Build­ing 45. This build­ing will be bet­ter equipped to sup­port effi­cient fer­ry oper­a­tions through new fenc­ing, improved lot access and drainage, upgrad­ed util­i­ties and light­ing, and renew­able ener­gy ele­ments. We thank the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion, along with Sen­a­tor Schumer, Sen­a­tor Gilli­brand, and the numer­ous elect­ed offi­cials and advo­cates, for their part­ner­ship in secur­ing this crit­i­cal invest­ment. It is even sweet­er know­ing this fed­er­al fund­ing will also sup­port the first-ever elec­tric pas­sen­ger fer­ry to Gov­er­nors Island.”

Every year, tens of mil­lions of pas­sen­gers rely on the Stat­en Island Fer­ry for their dai­ly com­mutes and more, and Gov­er­nors Island wel­comes near­ly 1 mil­lion vis­i­tors,” said U.S. Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Charles Schumer. That’s why I fought so hard to include these much-need­ed funds in the Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law to sup­port Gov­er­nors Island and Stat­en Island Fer­ry oper­a­tions. These fed­er­al grants pro­vide the resources need­ed to strength­en Stat­en Island Fer­ry oper­a­tions and will fund shore­side charg­ing infra­struc­ture for Gov­er­nors Island’s hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry, expand­ing access for visitors.”

Exclu­sive­ly acces­si­ble by fer­ry, Gov­er­nors Island is a nation­al trea­sure that offers a range of unique resources that should be enjoyed by all New York­ers,” said U.S. Sen­a­tor Kirsten Gilli­brand. This $7.48 mil­lion in fund­ing will allow for the con­struc­tion of crit­i­cal shore­side infra­struc­ture to enable rapid charg­ing for fer­ry ves­sels. Build­ing this infra­struc­ture will sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce emis­sions, decrease main­te­nance costs, improve reli­a­bil­i­ty of fer­ry ser­vice for pas­sen­gers, and pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments in air qual­i­ty for res­i­dents of Low­er Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn. I am proud to announce this fund­ing and will con­tin­ue to fight to improve trans­porta­tion for pas­sen­gers and bring fed­er­al dol­lars home to New York.”

The grants were secured as part of the Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law, also known as the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment and Jobs Act, which became law in Novem­ber 2021. Valu­able sup­port for the city’s appli­ca­tion came from Sen­a­tor Schumer, Sen­a­tor Gilli­brand, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan Gold­man, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nicole Mallio­takis, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jer­ry Nadler, and local elect­ed offi­cials and advocates.

New York City’s first pub­lic, hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry is sched­uled to begin ser­vice between Low­er Man­hat­tan and Gov­er­nors Island in the sum­mer of 2024. The vessel’s rapid charg­ing infra­struc­ture, made pos­si­ble by this cap­i­tal grant, will enable the fer­ry to oper­ate with zero-emis­sion, bat­tery-only propul­sion, which will drop emis­sions to near­ly zero. The new hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry will expand access for Gov­er­nors Island’s near­ly 1 mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors and will serve the forth­com­ing Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solutions.

The ferry’s hybrid propul­sion sys­tem will reduce air pol­lu­tion by allow­ing it to tog­gle between zero-emis­sion, bat­tery-only pow­er and bat­tery-assist­ed hybrid with diesel back­up. The bat­tery-assist mode will allow the new fer­ry to reduce car­bon diox­ide emis­sions by approx­i­mate­ly 800 tons annu­al­ly. The shore­side charg­ing infra­struc­ture will be locat­ed at Sois­sons Fer­ry Land­ing on Gov­er­nors Island, with con­struc­tion antic­i­pat­ed to be com­plet­ed in 2025.

The $3 mil­lion award­ed to DOT will reha­bil­i­tate an off-site stor­age facil­i­ty, local­ly referred to as Build­ing 45.” The Stat­en Island Fer­ry is the busiest pas­sen­ger-only fer­ry ser­vice in the world, car­ry­ing near­ly 24 mil­lion pas­sen­gers each year. It oper­ates 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, between Stat­en Island and Low­er Manhattan.

From trains to bus­es and now elec­tric fer­ries — the Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law is trans­form­ing how New York­ers access some of the city’s most cel­e­brat­ed attrac­tions, includ­ing Gov­er­nors Island,” said Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nadler. I applaud the addi­tion of the first 100 per­cent elec­tric pub­lic fer­ry in New York Har­bor, which will serve as a tes­ta­ment to Gov­er­nors Island’s future as a hub for cli­mate edu­ca­tion, train­ing, and research. I’m proud of my work in Con­gress to mod­ern­ize and expand tran­sit ser­vice for New York­ers, and I will keep fight­ing to build on the progress we are see­ing here today.”

From secur­ing crit­i­cal funds to mod­ern­ize our fer­ry fleet, to advo­cat­ing for a new con­tract for our fer­ry work­ers, to deliv­er­ing a grant to reha­bil­i­tate this stor­age facil­i­ty, I will con­tin­ue to keep my com­mit­ment to improve the ser­vice reli­a­bil­i­ty of the Stat­en Island Fer­ry,” said Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mallio­takis. Stat­en Island is final­ly receiv­ing its fair share of fed­er­al infra­struc­ture fund­ing, and I will con­tin­ue to work with col­leagues on both sides of the aisle to fight for more fund­ing to bring our community’s infra­struc­ture into the 21st century.”

I am thrilled that the suc­cess of Pres­i­dent Biden’s Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law will again direct­ly serve New York’s front­line com­mu­ni­ties. Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of fight­ing cli­mate change through clean ener­gy mar­itime trans­porta­tion,” said Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gold­man. I am also grate­ful to the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion for grant­i­ng my request for this sup­port for the Gov­er­nors Island Fer­ry elec­tri­fi­ca­tion infra­struc­ture project. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Gov­er­nors Island and the New York City Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion on this vital grant, and I look for­ward to work­ing togeth­er in the future to make our water­ways green­er and cleaner.”

Cre­at­ing and uti­liz­ing the infra­struc­ture need­ed for New York Har­bor’s first 100 per­cent elec­tric pub­lic fer­ry is a cru­cial step towards meet­ing our ambi­tious cli­mate goals,” said New York State Sen­a­tor Andrew Gounardes. I applaud the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion for rec­og­niz­ing the keen need for shore­side charg­ing infra­struc­ture in New York, and I look for­ward to see­ing our first ful­ly elec­tric fer­ry in action!”

I am thrilled to see New York City lead­ing the way in sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion with the intro­duc­tion of the first hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry for Gov­er­nors Island,” said New York State Assem­bly­mem­ber Charles D. Fall. This sub­stan­tial fed­er­al invest­ment not only enhances our city’s infra­struc­ture but also aligns with our com­mit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship. By reduc­ing emis­sions and advanc­ing clean ener­gy solu­tions, we are tak­ing crit­i­cal steps towards a green­er future. The shore­side rapid charg­ing infra­struc­ture rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant leap for­ward in our ongo­ing efforts to reduce car­bon foot­prints and pro­mote eco-friend­ly trav­el options for New York­ers and vis­i­tors alike. I com­mend the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, May­or Adams, and our fed­er­al part­ners for their vision and com­mit­ment to trans­form­ing our city’s tran­sit sys­tem into a mod­el of sustainability.”

Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to shine as an exam­ple of sus­tain­able, resilient urban life, and this invest­ment in mass tran­sit and green infra­struc­ture is a win for New York­ers, our har­bor, and our envi­ron­ment. I’m grate­ful to every col­league, ally, and advo­cate who con­tributed to secur­ing this fund­ing for a more sus­tain­able city and tran­sit sys­tem,” said Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Mark Levine. The future of New York’s har­bor is increas­ing­ly green.”

In receiv­ing this grant from the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion, New York City is tak­ing an impor­tant step towards a sus­tain­able future. Thanks to this fund­ing, we are not just improv­ing trans­porta­tion across our city — we are paving the way for car­bon-con­scious trav­el,” said New York City Coun­cilmem­ber James F. Gen­naro, chair, Com­mit­tee on Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion, Resilien­cy, and Water­fronts. This project is a tes­ta­ment to our com­mit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship and a cat­a­lyst for pos­i­tive change towards a more inter­con­nect­ed and eco-friend­ly future.”

We are excit­ed this fed­er­al fund­ing can be put to good use to ben­e­fit not just the Low­er Man­hat­tan com­mu­ni­ty but all vis­i­tors to Gov­er­nors Island,” said New York City Coun­cilmem­ber Christo­pher Marte. This is a great step towards mak­ing all pub­lic vehi­cles green­er and reduc­ing our city’s mas­sive car­bon footprint.”

Elec­tri­fy­ing our city is a vital step in tack­ling the cli­mate cri­sis,” said New York City Coun­cilmem­ber Lin­coln Restler. Thanks to sup­port from the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to lead the way on sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and I am excit­ed to ride their new hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry next summer.”

Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1 is thrilled to see such quick advance­ment of green ini­tia­tives with the inclu­sion of a rapid charg­ing sta­tion in the shore­side infra­struc­ture that will sup­port the hybrid-elec­tric fer­ries to serve Gov­er­nors Island,” said Tam­my Meltzer, chair, Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1. This fed­er­al invest­ment enables us to mark a piv­otal step towards reduc­ing our envi­ron­men­tal foot­print, while enhanc­ing trans­porta­tion and air qual­i­ty for our com­mu­ni­ty. Thank you, May­or Adams, for this ini­tia­tive that not only sym­bol­izes our com­mit­ment to green infra­struc­ture but also strength­ens our city’s resilience in fac­ing the chal­lenges of cli­mate change.”

Gov­er­nors Island is an inspir­ing exam­ple for how cities around the world will adapt to cli­mate change, and with today’s announce­ment, we are show­cas­ing sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion options by mak­ing New York City’s first pub­lic fer­ry 100 per­cent elec­tric,” said Ali­cia Glen, chair, board of direc­tors, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. We’re grate­ful to Pres­i­dent Biden, Sen­a­tor Schumer, Sen­a­tor Gilli­brand, and all of our gov­ern­ment part­ners in mak­ing this his­toric invest­ment a reality.”

This piv­otal grant for shore­side charg­ing infra­struc­ture is yet anoth­er step for­ward in the tran­si­tion to renew­able ener­gy and the cre­ation of a more sus­tain­able route to Gov­er­nors Island. But more impor­tant­ly, it’s a mes­sage to the world of how seri­ous­ly our city and state take cli­mate change, and it’s a sym­bol of what’s pos­si­ble when all of us — gov­ern­ment enti­ties, elect­ed offi­cials, pol­i­cy experts, and more — work togeth­er,” said Dr. Stephen Ham­mer, CEO, The New York Cli­mate Exchange. This fund­ing will empow­er thou­sands of vis­i­tors each year to access Gov­er­nors Island in a sus­tain­able way, demon­strat­ing how we can adapt to the cli­mate cri­sis with a for­ward-look­ing vision. Thank you to the con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, and all those who helped deliv­er this impor­tant funding.”

As the region’s pre­mier advo­cate for water­borne trans­porta­tion, we are thrilled with the city’s abil­i­ty to lever­age fed­er­al fund­ing for our fer­ry oper­a­tions,” said Cort­ney Koenig Wor­rall, pres­i­dent and CEO, Water­front Alliance. The fund­ing award­ed today high­lights two inte­gral com­po­nents of Water­front Alliance’s advo­ca­cy on water­front trans­porta­tion: inno­va­tion and main­te­nance. In a stride toward inno­va­tion, new fund­ing will sup­port shore­side rapid charg­ing infra­struc­ture for the city’s first elec­tric fer­ry. Addi­tion­al­ly, in a wise effort to address water­front main­te­nance, new fund­ing is also being ded­i­cat­ed to the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of Build­ing 45, a key stor­age facil­i­ty sup­port­ing the 247 oper­a­tions of the Stat­en Island Fer­ry. We applaud DOT and May­or Adams for demon­strat­ing the abil­i­ty to invest in the future, while also meet­ing oper­a­tions and main­te­nance needs of our crit­i­cal infrastructure.”

We’re proud to hear that inno­va­tion in our own back­yard will raise the bar for sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture in New York City. A 100 per­cent elec­tric fer­ry means the future has arrived in New York Har­bor,” said Jes­si­ca Lap­pin, pres­i­dent, Alliance for Down­town New York. Gov­er­nors Island is one of the city’s gems, and we enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly wel­come news that trav­el­ing to this unique des­ti­na­tion from Low­er Man­hat­tan will soon be clean­er and more efficient.”

The Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School com­mu­ni­ty is excit­ed to wel­come New York Harbor’s first 100 per­cent elec­tric pub­lic fer­ry to Gov­er­nors Island,” said Aneal Helms, prin­ci­pal, New York Urban Assem­bly Har­bor School. Our New York City pub­lic high school stu­dents embrace their roles as stew­ards of their envi­ron­ment every day, as they par­tic­i­pate in career and tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion path­ways rang­ing from marine sci­ence to marine affairs to marine tech­nol­o­gy. We applaud this grant from the Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion that will allow our stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, and staff to tru­ly man­i­fest the mis­sion of our school while com­mut­ing to and from school every day.”

The team here at Bil­lion Oys­ter Project is excit­ed to be part of a decar­bonized New York City and is look­ing for­ward to a more sus­tain­able com­mute to Gov­er­nors Island,” said Pete Mali­nows­ki, exec­u­tive direc­tor, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project. Gov­er­nors Island is lead­ing the way with the city’s first fer­ry that will run with­out the use of fos­sil fuels.”

We are thrilled to wit­ness Gov­er­nors Island’s evo­lu­tion into a hub for inno­v­a­tive, envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious ini­tia­tives, such as the devel­op­ment of the first 100 per­cent elec­tric pub­lic fer­ry in New York Har­bor,” said Craig T. Peter­son, pres­i­dent, Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC). This invest­ment aligns with LMCC’s com­mit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty and with our exist­ing work at The Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island, a plat­form for envi­ron­men­tal research and prac­tice at the inter­sec­tion of cli­mate jus­tice and the arts. We are excit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in fur­ther ini­tia­tives that serve the broad­er pub­lic and lead to action, advo­ca­cy, and increased engage­ment with one of the most crit­i­cal issues of our time.”

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces New Win­ter Sea­son Programs

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The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the return of win­ter pro­gram­ming and activ­i­ties start­ing Decem­ber 1, 2023. This win­ter, Gov­er­nors Island is a must-vis­it des­ti­na­tion for local New York­ers and tourists from all over the world with a pletho­ra of cold weath­er activ­i­ties includ­ing local food ven­dors, fire pits, hol­i­day lights, the third annu­al Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show, and more spe­cial events to be announced through­out the season. 

New this sea­son is expand­ed access for four-legged New York­ers. Win­ter Dog Days will run Decem­ber 1 through April 30, 2024, with dogs wel­comed to vis­it Gov­er­nors Island every day with their human com­pan­ions begin­ning at 10am, not just on week­ends. Also new this win­ter is an expand­ed off-leash dog park open­ing Decem­ber 1 in Colonels Row with plen­ty of space for dogs to run and play outside. 

We are proud to con­tin­ue our win­ter pro­gram­ming for our vis­i­tors and their fur­ry friends,said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. The win­ter sea­son on the Island is a mag­i­cal time for vis­i­tors to expe­ri­ence all the fan­tas­tic year-round pro­gram­ming we have to offer, like our new­ly expand­ed Dog Days, and the vis­i­tor favorites of drink­ing hot cocoa, enjoy­ing deli­cious food from our food trucks, and even sled­ding in the Hills — all while tak­ing in unpar­al­leled sky­line views. There is some­thing for every­one in the fam­i­ly to enjoy all year round across the Island.”

Woof, woof, woof, woof!” said Chip, Aspen, and Reed, the Gov­er­nors Island work­ing dogs, in a joint state­ment encour­ag­ing dogs to tell their own­ers to take them to Win­ter Dog Days. 

Anoth­er great rea­son to vis­it the Island in the win­ter is the food. Long­time Gov­er­nors Island ven­dor Mak­i­na Café is open dai­ly in Colonels Row, with an expand­ed menu includ­ing their pop­u­lar Ethiopi­an and Eritre­an dish­es along with loaded fries, chick­en fin­gers, break­fast sand­wich­es, tea, cof­fee, and more spe­cial items. Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny is also open dai­ly in the Bat­tery Mar­itime fer­ry wait­ing room in Low­er Man­hat­tan, and addi­tion­al food trucks and pop-up ven­dors will be fea­tured at spe­cial events through­out the winter.

Upcom­ing fall and win­ter events include open hours at the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture on Novem­ber 18, NYCRUNS Go Nuts for Donuts” 5K and 10K on Novem­ber 18, and the Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show on Feb­ru­ary 3, 2024. Pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Times Square Arts with sup­port from the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island, the third annu­al show pro­vides New York­ers and vis­i­tors from around the world with the sin­gu­lar oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence live ice carv­ing. Ten artists will be cho­sen, and each select­ed final­ist will be paired with a pro­fes­sion­al ice carv­er from Okamo­to Stu­dio for the pub­lic event. Vis­i­tors are invit­ed to wit­ness this real-time ice carv­ing and vote on their favorite sculp­ture for the People’s Choice Award” at the end of the event. A larg­er-scale ver­sion of the win­ning sculp­ture will then be carved and installed by Okamo­to Stu­dio in Times Square as a visu­al anchor for the district’s annu­al Valentine’s Day events. Artists, design­ers, and oth­er cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers are invit­ed to sub­mit a pro­pos­al to par­tic­i­pate online at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​i​c​e​-show through Novem­ber 172023.

Blaz­ing Sad­dles is open dai­ly in Colonels Row with bike and sled rentals, and QC NY Spa con­tin­ues to be open dai­ly on Gov­er­nors Island with heat­ed out­door pools along­side saunas, steam rooms, relax­ation treat­ments, mas­sages, and a bar and bistro.

Gov­er­nors Island’s award-win­ning park remains open to the pub­lic every day dur­ing the cold sea­son, along with recre­ation activ­i­ties like bike rentals, a climb­ing boul­der, Ham­mock Grove, the Hills, Pic­nic Point, and more. Gov­er­nors Island Arts pub­lic art com­mis­sions, includ­ing works from Sam Van Aken, Duke Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Mark Dion, Sheila Berg­er, and Mark Hand­forth, are also cur­rent­ly on view through­out the Island.

Dur­ing the win­ter months, Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 7am to 6pm. Trust for Gov­er­nors Island-oper­at­ed fer­ries run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. Dogs will require indi­vid­ual free fer­ry reser­va­tions, avail­able online. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, seniors 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly on the South Brook­lyn route. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it www.ferry.nyc.

World Bank Exec­u­tive and Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Expert Tapped to Lead the New York Cli­mate Exchange on Gov­er­nors Island

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The New York Cli­mate Exchange, a first-of-its-kind orga­ni­za­tion work­ing to imple­ment inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions in New York City and across the globe, today announced Dr. Stephen Ham­mer as its found­ing chief exec­u­tive offi­cer. Ham­mer is a lead­ing glob­al cli­mate pol­i­cy expert who has served as top cli­mate advi­sor at the World Bank for the past decade. In his new role as CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange, Ham­mer will lead a first-ever con­sor­tium of over 45 part­ner orga­ni­za­tions com­mit­ted to solv­ing the most press­ing cli­mate chal­lenges of our time. 

New York City May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island select­ed the New York Cli­mate Exchange – known as The Exchange – in April 2023, fol­low­ing a two-year com­pet­i­tive process seek­ing an edu­ca­tion­al and research part­ner to anchor a cross-sec­tor cen­ter ded­i­cat­ed to devel­op­ing and scal­ing cli­mate solu­tions for New York City and beyond. The Exchange will even­tu­al­ly be housed in a $700 mil­lion state-of-the-art facil­i­ty on Gov­er­nors Island set to open in 2028

As a world-renowned leader with expe­ri­ence dri­ving cli­mate pol­i­cy in New York City and on the inter­na­tion­al stage, Dr. Ham­mer is unique­ly posi­tioned to con­vene part­ners across sec­tors to advance cli­mate solu­tions in New York City. Most recent­ly, Dr. Ham­mer spent a decade at the World Bank as senior pol­i­cy advi­sor on urban-scale cli­mate solu­tions, glob­al cli­mate pol­i­cy, and finance issues, where he spear­head­ed key cli­mate part­ner­ships with the Unit­ed Nations Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change, the UN Sec­re­tary General’s team, and the G20, and sup­port­ed efforts to main­stream cli­mate change into all facets of the Bank’s lend­ing operations. 

He pre­vi­ous­ly held fac­ul­ty posts at MIT’s Depart­ment of Urban Stud­ies and Plan­ning (DUSP), Colum­bia University’s School of Inter­na­tion­al and Pub­lic Affairs (SIPA), and the Pratt Insti­tute, where he spe­cial­ized in urban ener­gy sys­tems and pol­i­cy, often with a spe­cif­ic focus on New York City. He also co-found­ed and co-direct­ed the Urban Cli­mate Change Research Net­work (UCCRN), an inter­na­tion­al con­sor­tium of researchers inter­est­ed in cli­mate change from an urban per­spec­tive, and served on May­or Bloomberg’s Ener­gy Pol­i­cy Task Force, advis­ing on PlaNYC, the City’s long-term growth and sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tive. His full bio can be found here. 

Under our admin­is­tra­tion, New York City is becom­ing the glob­al leader in devel­op­ing solu­tions for cli­mate change while cre­at­ing thou­sands of good-pay­ing green jobs for New York­ers,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. With the appoint­ment of Dr. Ham­mer as the CEO of the first-in-the-nation New York Cli­mate Exchange, our city takes one step clos­er to open­ing this hub of future inno­va­tion, bring­ing togeth­er our lead­ing research and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions, and cre­at­ing the eco­nom­ic and aca­d­e­m­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties New York­ers deserve. His aca­d­e­m­ic exper­tise and proven record of lead­er­ship in New York City and across the globe make Dr. Ham­mer unique­ly posi­tioned to serve as the Exchange’s first leader.” 

New York City is lead­ing the charge in gen­er­at­ing real solu­tions to help cities adapt to the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis while ready­ing New York­ers for the cli­mate jobs of the future. We’re thrilled to have glob­al­ly renowned cli­mate expert Stephen Ham­mer lead­ing the New York Cli­mate Exchange, and are con­fi­dent he will help pro­pel our efforts to meet the chal­lenges the cli­mate cri­sis pos­es,” said Deputy May­or Maria Tor­res-Springer

There is tru­ly no orga­ni­za­tion like this across the globe. World­wide, too many sec­tors – the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, non-prof­its, gov­ern­ment, aca­d­e­mics, and more – are work­ing in silos. The Exchange is not just anoth­er insti­tute – it’s part think tank, part do-tank – serv­ing as a train­ing ground for the cli­mate lead­ers of tomor­row and an incu­ba­tor for tech­nol­o­gy and mar­ket entre­pre­neurs. It’s meant to inno­vate and have an impact, to defend sci­ence, and to make New York City a liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry for inter­na­tion­al solu­tions. Cli­mate change is going to rever­ber­ate across the world and every aspect of soci­ety, and work­ing with our world-class part­ners, we’re going to bring peo­ple togeth­er to deliv­er real impact on this col­lec­tive, exis­ten­tial chal­lenge,” said Dr. Stephen Ham­mer, found­ing CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. 

In Dr. Ham­mer, we have a true con­ven­er capa­ble of work­ing across sec­tors, nur­tur­ing mean­ing­ful solu­tions to the cli­mate cri­sis, and deliv­er­ing action. As com­mu­ni­ties across the world strug­gle to adapt to the effects of cli­mate change, we are putting a high­ly cre­den­tialed leader at the helm to expe­dite solu­tions scal­able for any com­mu­ni­ty. We look for­ward to work­ing with Dr. Ham­mer and our dozens of part­ners to cre­ate scal­able solu­tions,” said Mau­rie McIn­nis, chair of the board of direc­tors of The New York Cli­mate Exchange, and the pres­i­dent of Stony Brook University. 

The Cli­mate Exchange will help New York remain a glob­al leader in devel­op­ing and spread­ing sus­tain­able solu­tions — a posi­tion that Dr. Ham­mer helped us estab­lish more than a decade ago,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, UN sec­re­tary-gen­er­al’s spe­cial envoy on Cli­mate Ambi­tion and Solu­tions, 108th may­or of New York City and founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. With the Exchange’s focus on pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships, it can help cities be bold­er, con­nect to pri­vate finance, and move faster on cli­mate action. Our team at Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies is look­ing for­ward to work­ing with Dr. Ham­mer as he begins lead­ing this first-of-its kind organization.” 

Com­prised of world-class orga­ni­za­tions across acad­e­mia, busi­ness, and com­mu­ni­ty, The Exchange’s part­ner net­work fos­ters col­lab­o­ra­tion to dri­ve inno­va­tion and imple­ment impact­ful solu­tions. With 14 aca­d­e­m­ic and cor­po­rate orga­ni­za­tions and over 30 com­mu­ni­ty enti­ties from envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, research, and gov­ern­ment orga­ni­za­tions in New York City, part­ners have begun to work togeth­er to advance cli­mate edu­ca­tion, research, job train­ing, pub­lic pro­grams, and com­mer­cial­iza­tion to pre­pare com­mu­ni­ties to respond to cli­mate chal­lenges. These efforts are aid­ed by ini­tial invest­ments of a com­bined $100 mil­lion from the Simons Foun­da­tion and Simons Foun­da­tion Inter­na­tion­al, and $50 mil­lion from Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. Part­ners of The Exchange include: 

  • Boston Con­sult­ing Group 
  • Geor­gia Insti­tute of Technology 
  • Good Old Low­er East Side 
  • IBM
  • Pace Uni­ver­si­ty
  • Pratt Insti­tute
  • Stony Brook University 
  • Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington 
  • Duke Uni­ver­si­ty
  • Moody’s
  • New York University 
  • Rochester Insti­tute of Technology 
  • SUNY Mar­itime College 
  • The City Uni­ver­si­ty of New York 
  • Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford 

The Simons Foun­da­tion is thrilled to wel­come Dr. Stephen Ham­mer as the found­ing CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. The work starts with under­stand­ing the cli­mate sci­ence, mod­el­ing the risks, and esti­mat­ing its impacts on New York City, its infra­struc­ture, and its envi­ron­ment. New York can be a mod­el for the world’s cities. Dr. Ham­mer is poised to lead a trail­blaz­ing orga­ni­za­tion that brings togeth­er a broad and diverse set of tal­ents to address the great­est chal­lenge of our times, cli­mate change,” said David Spergel, pres­i­dent of the Simons Foundation. 

With the New York Cli­mate Exchange as its anchor insti­tu­tion, the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions will posi­tion New York City as a leader in devel­op­ing equi­table solu­tions for cities around the world. We are thrilled to work hand in hand with Dr. Stephen Ham­mer to uti­lize Gov­er­nors Island as a hub for bring­ing inno­v­a­tive ideas to life for com­mu­ni­ties on a local and glob­al scale,” said Clare New­man, pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. 

With its focus on research, edu­ca­tion, and work­force devel­op­ment, the New York Cli­mate Exchange, led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty with the sup­port of sev­er­al part­ners includ­ing SUNY Mar­itime, will pio­neer ground-break­ing solu­tions to reduce our car­bon foot­print, com­bat cli­mate change, and advance cli­mate resilience, while grow­ing green jobs. Dr. Hammer’s track record of dri­ving inno­v­a­tive cli­mate pol­i­cy in New York City makes him the ide­al found­ing leader for the Exchange. With his deep-root­ed expe­ri­ence and con­nec­tions, Dr. Ham­mer is unique­ly posi­tioned to dri­ve the changes required to ush­er in a sus­tain­able, green future for all of New York,” said SUNY Chan­cel­lor John B. King Jr.

We could not be more pleased to wel­come Dr. Stephen Ham­mer, who embod­ies The Exchange’s mis­sion. He has an inter­na­tion­al net­work and unri­valed New York City expe­ri­ence, and he’s unique­ly qual­i­fied to be a Con­ven­er-in-Chief’ for experts every­where at a time when human­i­ty needs it most,” said Chaou­ki T. Abdal­lah, CEO search com­mit­tee co-chair, vice chair of the board of direc­tors of The Exchange, and exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent for the research at the Geor­gia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy, and Maya Tol­stoy, CEO search com­mit­tee co-chair and dean of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington’s Col­lege of the Environment. 

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