This project is a proposal for an inclusionary learning school for Autistic children on North Brother Island – an abandoned medical facility in New York’s East River. Since 1885, the a 20-acre island has been a quarantine zone, hospital for infectious disease, tuberculosis sanatorium, container of Typhoid Mary, site of a disastrous shipwreck, drug rehabilitation center, and housing for World War II soldiers. The Island’s functions ceased in 1963 – abandoned since. Due to its seclusion and over 50 years of natural decay and growth, North Brother became the home for many colonial water birds, notably the Black Crowned Night Heron. Vegetation has aggressively taken hold of the island and its buildings. However, the nesting habits of the birds have decreased, if not vanished entirely. The birds are, on the other hand, still nesting on the much smaller and adjacent South Brother Island.
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