RETI Center Floating Reef Garden Capital Campaign

Tim Gilman-Sevcik is organizing this fundraiser to benefit Resilience Education Training And Innovation Center Limited.

Tax deductible

RETI Center is excited to announce the launch of a capital campaign, an ambitious plan to realize the BlueCity Floating Reef Garden. The first of its kind, this living, floating bio-habitat will support marine life and aquaculture systems while testing a variety of closed-loop amphibious engineering designs. Hosted by GBX~ Gowanus Bay Terminal, this project presents a small-scale demonstration of the BlueCity Climate Lab and will be paired with RETI's BlueBlocks Floating Gardens which were piloted in 2021. The Floating Reef will be a vertically-integrated growth system from the seafloor to the sun’s rays: a self-sustaining, closed-loop microcosm. It will be home to a solar-powered greenhouse for year-round growth of hyper-localized plants to supply the adjacent floating gardens and our coastal edges for long-term ecological restoration; host mussel ropes and oyster baskets for water cleansing; test seaweed spawning and production tied to fertilizing the gardens; and pilot a biophilic concrete hull.

The project is in partnership with PS676 Harbor Middle School and South Brooklyn Community High School, both of which serve Red Hook BIPOC youth, many of whom reside in NYCHA Red Hook Houses East + West. RETI has a long-term commitment to working with both schools on workforce training; resilience and coastal education; while collaboratively creating new educational models. This project will further expand that relationship, with design, fabrication, maintenance, and education fostering a collaborative learning experience. A full half of the project budget will fund the training and education program which will bring the next generation of climate activists into the program as students, trainees, and crew.

Project Goals

Increase marine habitat and potential for eco-restoration in heavily polluted urban waters
Monitor the creation of above and below water micro-habitats of these built systems and their impacts on the local environment in partnership with NOAA
Assess the pollutant removal capacities of these micro-habitats and multiplying organisms
Increase knowledge of BIPOC youth (with partnering organizations) in the marine environment
Cultivation of kelp for bio-plastic fabrication to develop circular sustainable local manufacturing and fertilizer
Testing of biophilic concrete, assessing form and structure and its impact for eco-system benefits
Test viability of aquaculture foods in the greenhouse such as sea-beans and sea-moss manufacturing and fertilizer

Fully half our budget provides education, training, and jobs for South Brooklyn's historically marginalized communities. We want to bring life back to New York Harbor, with a healthy ecosystem and an equitable economy.

The project team is composed of a diverse group of individuals who represent a wide variety of fields and share a common interest in deep environmental transformation and building a just future. This initiative is led by:

CO-CHAIR Marquise Stillwell, activist and founder of OpenBox who recently moved to Red Hook, Brooklyn. Marquise brings his passion for supporting diverse cultures and bringing about positive change to his many philanthropic and creative activities, recently working on the podcast, The Sweet Flypaper, focused on design and social practice. Marquise serves as a board member for the Lowline Underground Park, Urban Ocean Lab, and Ambassador for Pioneer Works. He is also a member of the High Line Advisory Committee, a board member for the Center For Healthcare Innovation and board adviser for the Andrew Goodman Foundation, and supports arts organizations such as the Joyce Theater, MOCADA in Brooklyn and the David Adjaye’s Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.

RETI Executive Director, Tim Gilman-Sevcik, PhD who has led the development of RETI Center since 2017 His vision for the evolution of institutions for contemporary challenges derives from his background as an artist, academic, creative director, and journalist, providing him with practical knowledge, a unique perspective, and an insightful approach to development balancing the values of sustainability with cultural and commercial interests. He has shaped and launched innovative projects in media, culture, and education such as WNYC’s Studio 360, Gulliver’s Gate miniature world in Times Square, and providing creative direction for large organizations such as the National Education Association and the Israel Ministry of Tourism. He teaches social impact at NYU’s Stern School of Business and has published his writing and exhibited his artwork widely.

Design Lead, Gita Nandan, Elliott Maltby, and Mark Mancuso of thread collective, an award-winning WBE certified architecture and landscape design firm, exploring the seams between building, city, and the environment, stitching these diverse elements together through innovative design and research. We believe design must always be situated within an ecology of place. This entails creating new and responsive relationships between humans and the compelling, complex living system that is our environment. Elliott Maltby spearheads the urban design and landscape initiatives, Gita Nandan and Mark Mancuso direct resilience and architectural projects. The three have won multiple national awards and grants over the past 22-years of practice - NEA Arts Works, New York State Council for the Arts, Taconic Fellowship, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to name a few. The passion for the BlueCity Floating Reef Garden lives in a long trajectory of past involvement working on urban ecological field stations bringing a human lens to the ever-evolving natural landscape.