BIG Completes Solar Education Center for Renewed East River Park in New York

From Dezeen’s Article by Ben Dreith | 29 October 2025 

Architecture studio BIG has announced a milestone in the ongoing construction of parks along the East River in New York with a timber-clad building with built-in solar infrastructure.

The Solar One Environmental Education Center is a two-storey timber-clad building designed to harvest solar energy and store it in case of emergency in Stuyvesant Cove Park.

At ground level, it has a grating that allows for water to flow freely in and out of the building in case of floods.

It replaces the preexisting building that, according to BIG, was a “vital refuge” for residents during the flooding of the city when Hurricane Sandy devastated New York City in 2012.

“The Solar One Environmental Education Center stands as both a model for modern flood protection and a learning tool for climate adaptation,” said BIG, which added that the energy storage capability should enable the building to stay open in the event of future power outages.

It is part of the several sections of renewed parks along the East River in Manhattan that have opened as part of the ongoing East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR), which both provides public space for residents and creates buffers against future storms.

Running between the FDR freeway and the river, wrapping the Lower East Side, the parks feature in sections along the river, with the most significant recent work being completed around the Williamsburg Bridge. The Solar One centre is sited at the far northern end of the project in what’s called Stuyvesant Cove Park.

“With the re-opening of East River Park, we see the first physical manifestation of a decade-long vision: an archipelago of parks forming an elevated, undulating new landscape – a ‘parkipelago’ if you will,” said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels.

“Each island of green is devoted to a use and character decided by the community. Rather than separating the city from the waterfront, we’ve designed a public realm that invites people in with new connections across the FDR, transforming flood protection into a tapestry of everyday experiences.”

“The result is infrastructure that not only strengthens, but also enhances the city’s coastline. It protects, connects, and inspires – proof that the future of our cities can be both safe from flood and full of life.”

BIG worked with the City of New York as well as landscape studios MNLA and ONE Architecture & Urbanism to create the park systems, which feature sports pitches, tracks and landscaped parks, all integrated with flood mitigation engineering.

Floodwalls, sliding gates, bridging berms, and elevated parkland all feature in the 2.2 miles of parkland. The recent completion is the second major phase of the park to open, with further completions planned for the coming years.