On April 13, 2009 the NYC Brownfield Partnership hosted its first annual Brownfields Award Ceremony, and recognized New York's most outstanding brownfield projects in eight categories represe nting facets of brownfields redevelopment.

"This is a great opportunity to celebrate the people who are achieving important brownfield milestones in our City.  Your visionary endeavors, tenacious advocacy, and hard work have led to projects and programs that realize sustainability goals set forth in PlaNYC," said keynote speaker Edward Skyler, NYC Deputy Mayor for Operations.

PlaNYC, which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled on Earth Day 2007, presents a comprehensive blueprint for greening and growing the city and its services.  The cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites accounts for 11 of the plans' 127 initiatives.

Other guest speakers included Val Washington, Deputy Commissioner for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, George Pavlou, Acting Regional 2 Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Daniel Walsh, Director of the NYC Office of Environmental Remediation.

The Partnership presented its first Distinguished Lifetime Service Award to Mathy Stanislaus, recently nominated by President Barack Obama to become Assistant Administrator for the US EPA and head of the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.  He has over two decades of experience in the environmental field and is co-founder of New Partners for Community Revitalization, a New York non-profit that works to encourage brownfield redevelopment.

The event was held at the Museum of the City of New York, where attendees got a chance to view “Growing and Greening New York: PlaNYC and the Future of the City.” The exhibit showcased the infrastructure and environmental challenges the city faces as it prepares for its population to reach 9 million residents by 2030.

(High School students from the Metropolitan Corporate Academy in Brooklyn read about the award winning projects during the morning reception.)

Posters of winning projects were available for viewing.  Shown here are posters for Elmhurst Park in Queens and an affordable housing complex.

The event was attended by over 200 people from widely varied backgrounds and was moderated by Gary Rozmus, Chairman of the Board of the NYC Brownfield Partnership.  The Partnership also recognized 9 students who received Brownfields Scholarships and the first green job trainees.

Representatives from the Partnerships founding member organizations with event speakers and the 2009 brownfield scholarships recipients.