Marking a major expansion of its acclaimed garden-based education program, The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) has opened a new $28 million Edible Academy. The indoor-outdoor campus, designed by the distinguished architecture firm Cooper Robertson, is at the cutting edge of sustainable technology and will allow NYBG’s edible gardening program for children, families, teachers, and the general public to double its capacity to 100,000 people annually and operate year-round.

For visitors to New York City, NYBG’s Edible Academy is just 20 minutes from Midtown and opens up a new range of summer and year-round workshops, camps and courses that will add an experiential, learning vacation component to urban adventures. For visiting families, a day trip or week-long camp program offers kids of all ages the chance to experience hands-on gardening activities and attend camps in summer that are focused on art, sustainability and culinary themes at one of New York City’s greatest cultural treasures. Activities include:

The Edible Academy, with the existing Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden as its centerpiece, features a 5,300-square-foot classroom building with a demonstration kitchen and a high-tech classroom; a teaching greenhouse; two outdoor pavilions for programs, including one at treetop level offering a vista of the Garden’s old-growth forest and the Bronx River; a tiered lawn amphitheater designed to seat 350; and spacious gardens where children, educators, and other visitors will learn about plants and grow and harvest their own produce.

Visit NYBG’s website for more info on The Edible Academy