The cat came out of the bag sooner than expected: at a formal press conference this afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg awarded a coveted city grant to build a new applied science campus in New York to team Cornell and Technion. No one had expected a decision until January, but news of top contender Stanford dropping out of the race and of the $350 million donation from the recently revealed Atlantic Philanthropies and its Chairman Charles Feeney shelled out to realize Cornell’s new campus left the jury with a clear decision. More renderings after the jump!

Cornell teamed up with Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, to propose a 2.1-million-square-feet campus on the southern tip of the oft-forgotten sliver of land that is Roosevelt Island. Designed by SOM, the campus includes four acres of solar panels tilted for optimal sun exposure, 500 geothermal wells, and classrooms and laboratories to accommodate 2,000 students. New York can expect to see Roosevelt Island bedazzled in sloping silver forms on one end and supporting the somber FDR Memorial designed by Louis Kahn on the other. Check out what our partner site The Atlantic Cities forecasts for the future of Roosevelt Island as “college town.”

All images courtesy SOM.

[via The New York Observer]

by Kelly Chan

posted in New Projects news

tagged Bloomberg, cornell, green, mayor bloomberg, new york city, Skidmore Owings Merrill, solar panels, SOM

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