![]() The materials in the library are really unfussy. And finally, we’re going to provide space for community groups to meet, opportunities for them to learn about how to advocate for their families and their neighbors, and how to deal with environmental justice issues. We’re going to provide meaningful opportunities to connect people to plant life, and to encourage dialogue around food sources. We’re also going to host workshops and lectures on environmental and sustainability-related topics. The first thing we’re going to do is provide robust environmental education for a range of audiences. We think about four different aspects of programming. I see it spreading out across our library system and being an example for other library systems and civic institutions. And if we can bring climate and environmental issues into that space, as fact, that’s a unique position. When people come into the library, they have a sense of trust. It’s an opportunity for a world class library system to take a stand about environmental issues and the climate emergency. Something that was really unique about the brief for this project was that all these elements were always conceived as being part of one thing, and they really imagined this exact scenario where there would be a person, like Acacia, who could help spread the knowledge and programming from this hub for environmental awareness out throughout the other branches of the library system. In 2014, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) received the largest grant from GCEF to replace the existing library with a new state of the art facility and environmental education center to become a hub for environmental awareness, activism, and education. The Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund (GCEF) was created to manage these funds, and the community got to choose which public projects they wanted to allocate the money to. In 2010, New York State finally settled with Exxon Mobil for $25 million. So, in 2003, the City sued 23 oil companies responsible for the pollution, settling with all of them except for Exxon Mobil. The original Carnegie library was built in 1906, torn down in the 1970s, and then replaced with the small, single-story “Lindsay Box.” Around the same time as the construction of the second library, the Coast Guard discovered that over 50 acres of the Brooklyn-Queens Aquifer had been polluted by industry that had sprouted up along Newtown Creek (it was later learned to actually be over 100 acres). The current Greenpoint Library is the third to be built on this site. From the earth science lessons inscribed in the windows and gardens, to spaces for new educational programs, to meeting rooms for community organizations, the library is preparing new generations to stay vigilant and keep up the fight. Jason Roberts of Marble Fairbanks, the library’s architect, along with Brooklyn Public Library’s environmental justice coordinator, Acacia Thompson, take us on a virtual tour, describing how the building’s design and programming will work together to reckon with a polluted past and carry environmental activism into the future. As many of Greenpoint’s environmental burdens are mitigated or recede, the stories of decades of struggle are collected and preserved in its library. Today, brownfields are being remediated and redeveloped at a rapid clip, and the cleanup of Newtown Creek is on the horizon. With its industrial facilities and working class and immigrant populations, Greenpoint was a convenient place to locate the city’s largest wastewater treatment plant, a radioactive waste storage facility, and waste transfer sites galore. The oil spill is just one part of the legacy of contamination in the neighborhood - though amidst new development and residents, much of it is now hard to see. Money from a long-fought settlement for that massive spill seeded the library’s conception, design, and construction. The building’s actual origins date back 140 years, to a plume of oil that accumulated and migrated from the refineries along Newtown Creek into the groundwater and under nearby homes. But not just because of Covid lockdowns, or the delays caused by the discovery of asbestos-laced remnants from two previous library buildings at the construction site. Inaugurated in October, 2020 and finally opened to the public ten months later, the new Greenpoint Library and Environmental Center was a very long time coming.
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