Hunters Point Library (Photo: QueensPost)
Sept. 18, 2019. By Shane O’Brien
An environmental education center is slated to open at the new Hunters Point Library this fall after almost $1 million was secured in funding by the Queens Public Library.
QPL announced that the funds will be distributed over the course of three years to operate and run the center.
The new Hunters Point Library is set to open to the public for the first time on Tuesday, Sept. 24 after years of delays. The education center will open sometime after the official opening of the library, although no specific date has been confirmed.
There will be no designated room for the new center. Instead, the entire library will act as the center with expert staff and scheduled workshops.
The center will offer environmental STEM workshops and classes to children, teens and adults alike. Visitors can use interactive charts to learn about topics such as trees, plants, marine life, pollution, recycling, climate change and more.
Children’s book sector of the new library (Queens Post)
The center will be modelled after the Child’s Library Discovery Center at the Jamaica Pubic Library.
QPL President Dennis Walcott said that the education center was a first for Queens and that it will teach community members about the natural surroundings of Hunters Point and Long Island City.
“With STEM programs for children, teens and adults, the center will add an exciting new learning dimension to Hunters Point Library,” Walcott said.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation provided funding for the education center and Regional Director Steve Zahn said that teaching communities about the local environment was crucial.
“Investing in environmental education is critical for providing communities with the tools and information needed to understand what is going on in their backyards, the city, and the world.”
The center will also be used to educate teachers, New York City museum professionals and librarians so they can teach about environmental issues elsewhere.
Tech Center at the new library (Queens Post)
Reading and study area at the new library (Queens Post)
Reading area (Queens Post)
View from 4th floor of Library (Queens Post)
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18 Comments
Please contact me on how to receive the free
freezer baggie materials or information
of the Hunters Point Environmental Center?
Ten years and millions of dollars later, the library is not handicap accessible. Several floors can only be reached by stairs, breaking NY State law for public spaces. People using wheelchairs or walkers, parents with strollers, seniors with knee problems, etc. cannot get to these book-laden floors.
I like libraries, I liked the way this one looked despite the negativity it received, and I appreciate the public space but this should be a case study on how not to build one. Too much wasted interior space, too loud, too expensive and overall not practical. The open concept amplifies the noise and there is lots of it. The kids treat the space like a jungle gym running and jumping on the steps, cell phone conversations echo the open floors, and overall it’s a loud space. A better space could have been incorporated into one of the new buildings at a fraction of the cost and 10x the practicality if the goal was a library and not an architectural exclamation. Hopefully future projects will learn from this and not make the same mistakes.
“You are feee to move to a different neighborhood represented by someone else.”
I actually prefer- you are free to move back to whichever flyover state you came from.
HOW DARE THEY DESIGN SUCH A STRANGE LOOKING BUILDING!!?
Beautiful spaces. Hoping for an elevator to aid in getting to higher stacks.
Meeting room is so valuable for community groups. I see writing and research for all ages. We did it. Negative statements are leading readers to answer…that’s defensive. Trump, for example, spins confrontations, leading attention away from gross robbery of our treasury, treasonous dealings with Russia. Never respond to nasties; they feed off your pain.
The community should be fed up with how many year it took to build it and how many millions over budget. But yet Jimmy Van Bramer will show up on Tues for another photo op telling how he made it all happen. GO AWAY JIMMY
Can’t wait for the busload of homeless to be deposited on the doorstep of the new Library in Hunters Point. Would be nice to have them sit on those new couches and download porn on the new Public Library Computers and sit in on the Drag Queen Story Book Hour taking space and warming up during the winter — all sponsored by Jimmy Van Bramer. Several years delayed and $50 Million in costs overruns – already has a leaky roof and filtration.
You mean members of public may use the public library? The horror! How dare they not keep the poors and queers away from you!
“How dare they not keep the poors and queers away from you!”
There’s a difference between keeping the “queers” away (which nobody is doing) and inviting Transgenders to come in and propagandize to children.
If you’re fed up, move. Then you don’t have to be fed up anymore, although I have e feeling that no matter you move you will find something to be fed up about. It’s a PUBLIC library, which means it’s open to the PUBLIC which includes the homeless. No one says you have to go to the library or Drag Queen story time, which is actually for children. Grow up! So tired of the whining by people in this neighborhood. You are feee to move to a different neighborhood represented by someone else.
Granted, but let’s be honest: the homeless using the library as a living space is not the intended use of the library.
Why would we want homeless people in our library where our CHILDREN play especially when we pay a ton for rent for a nice neighborhood. no thanks they can go find a job get out of my town
You could never live in Seattle then. There are many homeless people in their public library. It’s PUBLIC. You really can’t do anything about it. And funny you think they can easily “go find a job”. You should have done your research before you moved to NYC. This is life, we all have to co-exist peacefully.
I imagine, like most of those without empathy or charitable instincts, you consider yourself a good Christian?
Out of the 2100 new apartments that are being built around Hunters Point park, 900 are rent stabilized units for low income residents. And the new community center already has provisioned space for homeless and addiction rehabilitation. There is no point complaining. Moving out may be your only option if you cannot live with such a public environment.
Also, the lease agreement with the developers is ending in 2022.
Giuliani was there for our country when we needed him/her
I have been to a few Queens Library branches, and I have not seen “busload of homeless” in any of the branches. I am not quite sure where you are get this from.