Teatown Lake Reservation’s campaign to transform the 1,000-acre preserve and campus into a sustainable, inclusive space could get underway as early as this summer, officials said.
The two-year renovation project, which includes adding an education center, retooling the Nature Center, relocating parking areas and making trails more accessible carries an estimated $28 million price tag, Executive Director Kevin Carter said recently.
A fundraising campaign that includes ongoing maintenance costs for the campus has totalled $24 million in gifts and pledges, Carter said, with broader donor outreach planned this year.
“As an organization with over 60 years of history in teaching environmental education, giving people a place to go and connect with nature, we’re about to take a quantum leap forward,” Carter said.
The nonprofit preserve attracts an estimated 30,000 visitors annually to hike its 15 miles of trails, attend events and participate in educational programs.
Teatown has an Ossining address but the portion of the campus earmarked for renovation falls within Yorktown, where approval was granted at the March 24 Planning Board meeting. State approvals are still required. Requests for proposals for general contractors are due April 2.
Teatown’s summer camp and educational programs are expected to continue for the duration of the project, although the Nature Center would be closed during renovations, Managing Director Alan Sorkin said.
Teatown’s “once-in-a-lifetime project” includes:
- Upgraded ADA-compliant, eco-friendly trails accessible for disabled visitors and strollers.
- Removing paved parking areas and replacing them with native meadows, nature play areas, rain gardens and accessible walking paths.
- A new, ADA-accessible geothermal-powered education building with three classrooms, open spaces, and an ADA-accessible “green roof” that will serve as an example of a sustainable alternative to a traditional roof.
- Nature Center renovations to add administrative offices and exhibition galleries.
Teatown officials gathered in the Nature Center on Feb. 27 to acknowledge a $150,000 in state funding for the project from state Sen.Pete Harckham, whose district includes the campus.
“Partnering with Teatown started with my securing funding to create a single ADA-accessible trail,” Harckham said. “Staff and board members of Teatown thought even bigger and decided to make the entire campus renovation ADA accessible, and that is so exciting.”
The proposed leaf-shaped education center would offer school groups and visitors “a “canopy level view of Teatown,” Carter said.
“We always knew we wanted indoor-outdoor classrooms that opened up directly into nature,” he said. “For the first sixty-plus years of our organization, we made do with kids sitting on the floor. Part of the challenge of our new accessible campus was how do we accomplish this and make it fully accessible and we’re thrilled with what our architects designed.”
Teatown history
The nature preserve grew out of a 194-acre donation from the heirs of G.E. Chairman Gerard Swope to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 1963. Teatown was incorporated as a separate entity in 1971, and the partnership with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was eventually dissolved.
The name “Teatown” dates back to 1776 when tea was scarce due to British taxation. A man named John Arthur moved to the area with a chest full of tea that he planned to sell at a huge profit. His plot was discovered and he was forced to sell the tea at a fair price.
