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| Aerial rendering of Teatown’s upcoming Education Center. Courtesy nARCHITECTS |
Teatown Plans $26 Million Overhaul, With New Education Center in the Hudson Valley
Teatown Lake Reservation, a 1,000-acre nature preserve in Westchester County, is preparing for a $26 million campus transformation that leaders say will redefine how the organization connects with future generations of environmental stewards.
The nonprofit, which draws thousands each year for its trails, wildlife programs, and conservation work, will break ground in October 2025 on a sweeping redevelopment. Plans include a 5,400-square-foot education center designed by the Brooklyn-based firm nARCHITECTS, a renovated 1920s Tudor-style nature center, and an overhauled campus meant to improve accessibility and weave ecological design into the visitor experience.
“For more than 60 years, Teatown has been one of the Hudson Valley’s most cherished community resources and environmental education centers,” said Kevin Carter, the group’s executive director. “As we look toward the future, we are thrilled to create a more accessible campus and debut a new Education Center — where students from elementary to graduate school, as well as the broader community, will learn ways to protect our environment and advance conservation.”
The centerpiece of the project is the new education center, which will take the shape of a leaf. Its design calls for indoor and outdoor teaching spaces, including a green roof and a deck that overlooks the lake and the surrounding preserve. Visitors will ascend a gently spiraling ramp built with Accoya, a sustainable wood, that leads from the forest floor to the roof, blending architecture with landscape.
Eric Bunge, a co-founding partner of nARCHITECTS, described the collaboration as a natural fit. “The people at Teatown and their mission make for a dream client,” he said. “We look forward to transforming the campus into an immersive, pedestrian-friendly space that intertwines education with nature, and history with future opportunity.”
The historic Nature Center, a 15,000-square-foot former stable from the 1920s, will also undergo renovation. Once complete, it will house galleries, a nature store, offices, and an expanded animal care center. That space will serve as the permanent home for Teatown’s animal ambassadors — non-releasable wildlife, including porcupines, rabbits, owls, crows, and vultures.
Landscape architecture firm Starr Whitehouse is overseeing the redesign of the broader campus, which will feature a pedestrian-friendly plan, a new pavilion, and a maintenance building.
Founded in 1963, Teatown is the largest nonprofit community-supported nature preserve in Westchester County. Its grounds include 15 miles of hiking trails, a two-acre island refuge for more than 230 species of native wildflowers, and year-round programming in conservation and science education.
The preserve’s name dates to 1776, when a group of women known as the Daughters of Eve demanded that a local merchant sell tea at a fair price despite British taxation. The area, locals say, has been known as Teatown ever since.
Construction on the new campus is scheduled to begin next fall, with the promise of reshaping Teatown into a hub where design and environmental stewardship meet.
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