NJIT Students Influential in Transformation to Make Federal Building Cleaner and Greener

New Jersey Institute of Technology's Hillier College of Architecture and Design continues to help the local Newark community with projects that will transform the city's public spaces.

Recently, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) made the announcement that the city will be using $3.6 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds for stormwater management, tree planting and building resilience and adaptation updates around the Peter W. Rodino Federal Office Building, which houses the United States Attorney's Office for New Jersey, a field office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal offices.

This project is one of 13 projects at federal buildings across 10 states through GSA's Good Neighbor Program, as part of President Biden's Investing in America agenda.

"In 2021, when the GSA reached out to NJIT to ask if we would like to collaborate and create a class focused on improving the federal campus here in Newark, I jumped at the opportunity," said professor Georgeen Theodore. "Working together with the GSA's Regional Architect David Polk, Community Planner Ruth Kroeger and others, we developed what we would call a studio, in which students would work directly with the GSA and the city to envision this area as a new green district."

Joining Theodore and her former students in the press event were GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome and Newark City officials.

"The part of this project that makes me the most excited is that the ideas for it did not come from Washington. The ideas for this project came from right here from this community. And that's why this special collaboration that we have with Dr. Theodore, thank you so much for your work and the graduates of New Jersey Institute of Technology, thank you so much everybody," said Carnahan. "It is no secret that better ideas come from collaboration of people from all different walks of life, whether it's government or industry, or academia or the community. We see it really as a model for what we want to do around the country."

Prior to the announcement, Theodore and the students shared insights to Carnahan on their proposals to transform the area around the Rodino building.

Over the course of the semester, the studio developed a design that introduces a network of public spaces and paths that cool and clean the air with trees and planting, like addressing the heat island effect, that manages stormwater in an area that is currently highly impermeable. Another addition is to improve the quality of these spaces with furnishings and art so that they're inviting and comfortable.

"We know and I was just told and confirmed that the City of Newark has the second-worst heat island effect in the United States, where heat waves can compromise the health and comfort and create dangerous conditions for local folks, especially when we think about our populations like our children and our elders," added White-Newsome. "So that's the reality of this moment. But this project we are at today will work to shift that reality.

"This project will mitigate the impacts of stormwater by reducing water resistant surfaces and creating catchment areas. This project will reduce extreme heat by providing tree cover to paved surfaces. This project will add planters in green space with native plants. And they will also increase access to the outdoors making these green spaces available to the public."

It was cool to see all of these people who have their own busy lives and responsibilities and are excited about the work that we did.

Ebony Payne '22H was one of the former students in attendance. During the studio, alongside colleagues Anuradha Kadam and Iman Syed, they worked on a project that they called the Green Spine. It's a streetscape proposal, where they propose to put bike lanes, tree planting and gathering spaces on Walnut Street, which is closed to traffic, but functions as a parking lot. They proposed ways to make it nicer and more hospitable.

"When you're a student, sometimes you just get caught up in doing things for a grade, or like to get to the end of the semester, and you don't really think that anything is going to come up from the work that you do," said Payne, a Hillside, New Jersey native who recently received the Emerging Designer Award during this year's HCAD's Design Showcase. "It was cool to see all of these people who have their own busy lives and responsibilities and are excited about the work that we did.

"The chance to meet the administrator of the GSA, but also have people from the city there and people from the GSA there -we were surprised that they remembered all the work that we did."

Theodore highlighted how this project was personal to some of her students. "They invested talent and care and professionalism beyond their years in this design challenge," she said. "And they also brought their own personal experiences of living in Newark, and in some cases of previously coming to this site with their families to become citizens. I am so proud of the work you did, and I'm really proud to be your professor."

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