Key Takeaways:
- Runway Green is developing a climate-focused K-12 campus at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field on a 60-year NPS lease.
- Designed by SCAPE, the campus will serve up to 50,000 students annually across clean energy, urban agriculture, marine science and building decarbonization.
- Students can earn green economy credentials through hands-on work with partners including Solar One, Billion Oyster Project and CUNY.
- The $60 million project has $9.3 million in public funding secured; Phase 1 breaks ground in 2027, with transportation access a key challenge.
Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field Set for Climate-Focused School Campus
New York City students could soon learn in a new kind of classroom at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, where nonprofit Runway Green is developing a public school campus combining career training, sustainability and hands-on outdoor learning. The organization holds a 60-year lease with the National Park Service for a seven-acre site within Gateway National Recreation Area along Jamaica Bay. Designed by landscape architecture firm SCAPE, the campus would serve up to 50,000 K-12 students annually, offering labs, workshops and field-based instruction embedded across the airfield landscape. Unlike a single selective school, it’s built to be shared across the city’s public school system, giving students access to facilities most schools can’t provide on their own.
What Will Students Actually Learn and Do There?
The campus focuses on career-connected learning tied to the green economy. Program areas include environmental stewardship, clean energy, urban agriculture, building decarbonization and marine science. Facilities will include a public high school, a welcome center, a greenhouse, an ecological lab, a maritime garden, a ropes course and campgrounds, alongside outdoor classrooms that open directly into the airfield landscape. Students can earn job credentials through site-based projects such as building solar infrastructure for a net-zero campus or participating in marine restoration efforts in Jamaica Bay. Partners confirmed by Runway Green include NYC Outward Bound Schools, NY Sun Works, Solar One, the Billion Oyster Project, and the City University of New York’s Science and Resilience Institute.
Can the Campus Deliver Equitable Access for All Students?
Access is the project’s most pressing practical challenge. The site is far from direct subway connections, and current bus options add significant travel time for many students. David Bloomfield, an emeritus professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, has publicly questioned whether transportation plans are sufficient for a citywide campus serving students across all five boroughs. Program quality won’t matter if schools can’t budget for travel or if commute times become a barrier. The overall project budget stands at $60 million, with $9.3 million in public funding secured from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the New York City Council, and federal support backed by U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. The first phase, a three-acre farm developed with The Campaign Against Hunger, is expected to break ground in 2027. For the campus to fulfill its promise, leaders will need to align transportation planning, equitable program access, long-term operations and coordination with the National Park Service, guaranteeing the campus supports, rather than strains, broader stewardship goals for Jamaica Bay. If those pieces come together, Floyd Bennett Field could become one of the most ambitious and equitable learning environments New York City has ever built.
(Note: AI assisted in summarizing the key points for this story.)