To celebrate the start of a seven-month land use review process, Cornell has released preliminary renderings of the first academic building planned for Cornell Tech – the new world-class technology and entrepreneurship campus in New York City that was masterplanned by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM).
The modern campus strives to rethink academic workspace, prioritize environmental performance, and exploit the unique urban condition of Roosevelt Island. In May, Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne, founder of Morphosis, was appointed as architect of the first landmark building, which will set the stage for the carbon positive campus.
Continue after the break to learn more.
“Just as Cornell Tech will be pioneering new approaches to graduate research and education, our campus won’t look like any other university campus that exists today,” said Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of Cornell Tech. “We are determined to innovate in every aspect of the development, from the way that students, faculty, researchers, industry and the community are intermingled, to the sustainability of our buildings and their iconic architecture.”
Construction on Roosevelt Island is expected to begin in 2014, with the first phase of the campus due to open in 2017. Current plans for Phase I will include the first academic building, a corporate co-location building, an executive education center with hotel facilities, a residential building for students, faculty, and staff, as well as more than one acre of public open space.
The Morphosis-designed academic building will incorporate the latest environmental advances, such as geothermal and solar power, to achieve net-zero and to harvest as much energy as it consumes.
The lush campus is designed to be open to everyone. A new pedestrian walk, connecting the campus to the city, will open up to a series of large public spaces. The route of the esplanade will capture views of the Manhattan and Queens skylines, as it links to the Southpoint and Kahn’s newly constructed Four Freedoms park at the Island’s southern tip – which will open this month, more information here.
When completed in 2037, the campus will include up to 2.1 million square feet housing approximately 2,000 full-time graduate students.
via Cornell News
