New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden is a National Historic Landmark site with a multi-pronged mission—to conduct plant research, protect, preserve, and improve the garden and its collections, and to serve the community through education about the natural world, specifically horticulture and plant biology. Following through on the garden’s mission, the Edible Academy offers numerous hands-on activities for children and parents interested in learning about growing and preparing fruits and vegetables for healthy living. The increasingly popular and innovative programming demanded a new, state-of-the-art educational facility which would allow year-round operation of the Academy’s edible gardening and STEM activities.

Kohler Ronan contributed MEP/FP systems design for this building which features two high-tech classrooms accommodating up to 32 children and 5 chaperones each. Housed in one of the classrooms is a demonstration kitchen, which is central to the facility, as is the interconnected teaching greenhouse. The project was designed to LEED Gold standards and features a green roof, geothermal heating and cooling, and composting restrooms. The green roof collects storm water runoff and provides added insulation.

Kohler Ronan commissioned and performed functional testing on the ground source heat pumps, indoor units, and lighting controls.