Who says you can’t trust anyone over 30? The Center for the Urban Environment (CUE), a group that collaborates with with schools and offers tours of neighborhoods and parks, is turning 30.
Happy Birthday CUE.
They also recently underwent a name change. They were Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment. They are now: Center for the Urban Environment because they now sponsor programs throughout the city.
And CUE is also having a 30th anniversary shindig honoring Sarah Beatty of Green Depot; Ronald Chalusian of New Visions for Public Schools; Helena Durst of the Durst Organization; and Marcel Van Ooyen of the Council on the Environment of New York City.
The Brooklyn Eagle provides some history in an article in today’s edition.
The organization, originally known as the Prospect Park Environmental Center, was founded in 1978 in the living room of founder John Muir, who served as executive director until 2002. Muir, then a geography teacher, realized that “the students didn’t know much about their own city, and he had visions of taking them out and introducing them to the city,” says Ruth Edebohls, coordinator of Urban Tours.
Those were the days when Prospect Park was poorly maintained and crime- and trash-ridden. Many of its attractions, such as the Boathouse and the Carousel, were closed, and the Prospect Park Alliance was not yet on the scene.
The center first attracted attention with a walking tour called “Getting Acquainted With the Park.” Soon, another tour, of nearby Park Slope, attracted more than 200 people. Nowadays, the organization holds tours in four of the five boroughs.
In 1981, the organization hired its first director of education. Today, it sponsors many types of educational programs.
One is Urban Design, which helps students develop an awareness and appreciation of the environment through hands on programs.
The Picnic House (from 1984) was the original home for the Center. Then they moved to the Tennis House (from 1989). Now they’re in a LEED designed building: 168 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in the Gowanus neighborhood.
For the last few months, OTBKB has been pleased to collaborate with the center on monthly blog posts like Eco Lens and the Sustainability Beat, a snapshot of the sustainability issues that face the city.
What a win win for this blog. And I hope those posts are making even more people aware of the great work that’s being done by CUE.