Boyce Thompson Center Update: BTI Exhibit and Fall Opening

Press release via the office of Mayor Mike Spano of the city of Yonkers, NY.

Yonkers, NY – April 22, 2016 — The transformation of the former Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) building at 1086 N. Broadway is well under way and providing the local community with tantalizing clues about its much anticipated grand opening planned for Fall 2016.

Earth Week activities were capped with a site visit for colleagues from the Boyce Thompson Institute, located on the campus of Cornell University since 1978, the year it became affiliated with the Ithaca, NY, university and moved away from Yonkers.

During its 55 years in Yonkers, the Institute was a plant research and development facility focused in part on the relationship between horticulture and medicine.  Now being repurposed into a mixed use medical, retail and dining destination, the building is striking a new path in the delivery of medical services.

When Simone Development Companies purchased the property and decided the building was structurally sound and historically important for the Yonkers community, they agreed with the city to provide an exhibition related to the history of the building and the ongoing work of the Institute.

Today, BTI CEO and President Dr. David Stern and colleagues joined Simone Development Company’s design team for a tour of the 1924 building and a planning session for exhibition opportunities both in the building’s interior and its landscape program.

“The City of Yonkers is proud to be the conduit for bringing back this noble institution to Yonkers,” said Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano. “The Simone Development team has done an incredible job bringing the original Boyce Thompson Center back through adaptive reuse and will be filling it with quality medical tenants that will enhance human health.  Because of their collective focus on agriculture, human health and the environment I believe the Boyce Thompson Institute and the Boyce Thompson Center are great examples of Earth Day and how we can all work together to better our planet. ”

Guy Leibler, President of Simone Healthcare Development, explained to guests, “The revitalization of the Boyce Thompson building represents a story especially appropriate for Earth Week.  As a prime example of the adaptive reuse of early twentieth-century architecture, we are very pleased to collaborate with Boyce Thompson Institute colleagues to create an exhibition both in the building and in the landscape design so the community and visitors can understand the historical importance of the building to the City of Yonkers.”