By Sharnell O’Neal, Student in the M.S. in Sustainability Management Program, School of Professional Studies
When you study sustainability at Columbia in New York City, the classroom extends far beyond four walls. Your laboratory is the city itself; its waterways, neighborhoods, and design studios all offer lessons in resilience, equity, and creativity. This summer, I took the M.S. in Sustainability Management (SUMA) course Sustainability and Urban Form: Redevelopment, Reuse, and Ecological Design taught by Allison Bridges. In the class, we explored pressing urban sustainability challenges, not only through readings and policy analysis, but also through site visits across the city.
Our journey took us from the polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal to the collaborative studio space of WXY Architecture + Urban Design, and finally to the natural restoration project at Van Cortlandt Park. Each field visit underscored that sustainability is never just about the environment; it’s also about people, partnerships, and place.
Gowanus: Confronting Legacies of Pollution
Standing along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, it was impossible to ignore the weight of its history. Once an industrial artery in a heavy manufacturing and shipping corridor, the canal is now a federal Superfund site, notorious for its contaminated water and health hazard to nearby residents. Now, as cleanup has progressed, the Gowanus Canal is brimming with redevelopment potential. Developers, city officials, and community groups are grappling with the challenge of balancing remediation with new housing and equity concerns.
Through conversations with engineers and developers working in the area, we saw firsthand how brownfield redevelopment isn’t simply a technical exercise in remediation, but rather a social and political negotiation. The Gowanus Neighborhood Plan, developed with an emphasis on racial equity, revealed the tension between building a cleaner, greener waterfront and ensuring long-time residents aren’t priced out of their community.
“What gave me hope,” reflected Jennifer Ayala, a current SUMA student, “was seeing how much thought is going into both the cleanup and the future design. It showed me that redevelopment can actually create healthier spaces while also opening up new opportunities for the existing community.”
Construction barges and remediation equipment along the Gowanus Canal during ongoing Superfund cleanup work.
WXY: Designing with Communities
A few weeks later, our class stepped into the design studio of WXY Architecture + Urban Design, a firm known for shaping some of New York’s most forward-thinking public spaces. Here, design is not just about aesthetics, but also about democracy. Claire Weisz, founding partner of WXY, and her team emphasized how community-centered design can elevate local voices and guide neighborhood development—whether through reimagined waterfronts, reactivated civic spaces, or innovative housing strategies.
There was a strong balance between vision and practicality: WXY’s projects show how architects and planners act as both dreamers and facilitators when designing neighborhood solutions, by crafting bold ideas while also navigating zoning codes, financing, and stakeholder politics.
“It was inspiring to see how much of their work starts with listening,” SUMA student Lailah Hall said, “Good design isn’t just creative; it’s collaborative. WXY showed us that the most impactful projects are the ones built with communities, not just for them.”
Van Cortlandt Park: Restoring Hidden Streams
Our final site visit was to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, the third largest park in New York City. It reminded us that cities are ecosystems, too. The Tibbetts Brook Daylighting Project there aims to uncover a stream that had been channelized and paved over, restoring natural hydrology while reducing flooding and improving water quality. Daylighting Tibbetts Brook will remove the brook’s clean water from the sewer system and help to reduce combined sewer overflows into the Harlem River. It may also help lessen flooding along Broadway and other areas of the Tibbetts Brook Watershed.
We walked the path where the brook once flowed and imagined it running freely again. It was a moment of ecological imagination—seeing infrastructure as living systems that can heal and reconnect neighborhoods.
Michael Jordan, another SUMA student, noted, “I didn’t realize how much nature was hidden under the city. The idea that we can unearth a stream and let it flow again shows how sustainability isn’t only about building something new—it can also mean restoring what was always there.”
The City as Classroom
Together, these visits wove a powerful narrative for our class: sustainability is multifaceted and deeply human. The Gowanus Canal showed us the importance of environmental justice. WXY demonstrated how design can be driven by community voices. Van Cortlandt Park revealed the promise of ecological repair and the resilience of natural systems.
As the course came to a close, one truth became clear: building sustainable cities requires both systems thinking and storytelling. It asks us to bridge the technical with the cultural. Most importantly, it asks us to see the city itself as a classroom.
Views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Columbia School of Professional Studies or Columbia University.
About the Program
The Columbia University M.S. in Sustainability Management program offered by the School of Professional Studies in partnership with the Climate School provides students cutting-edge policy and management tools they can use to help public and private organizations and governments address environmental impacts and risks, pollution control, and remediation to achieve sustainability. The program is customized for working professionals and is offered as both a full- and part-time course of study.
