Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Stanford Submits Plan For NYC Applied Sciences & Engineering School and Reveals Plans For Roosevelt Island Campus - Compare Competing Stanford and Cornell Visions

On Tuesday, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced their support for Stanford University's proposed NYC Applied Sciences & Engineering School. Today, Stanford released this image of their proposed Roosevelt Island campus (Enlarged Picture Here)

Proposed Roosevelt Island Campus From Stanford University/Ennead Architects, image by Redsquare, Inc.

and released the following statement:
Stanford University today submitted its proposal to partner with New York City to build StanfordNYC, a world-class applied sciences and engineering campus that is expected to serve as an economic catalyst for new companies and jobs, and to become a new hub of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States.

Stanford's response to the New York City Economic Development Corp.'s request for proposals calls for the 30-year development of a $2.5 billion, 1.9-million-square-foot campus on Roosevelt Island focusing on graduate-level teaching and research in engineering, technology and entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on transferring discoveries to the marketplace.

"StanfordNYC will bring Stanford's unparalleled track record in research, innovation and entrepreneurship to New York City, the world's capital of finance, arts and culture," Stanford President John Hennessy wrote in the submission letter to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "StanfordNYC has the potential to help catapult New York City into a leadership position in technology, to enhance its entrepreneurial endeavors and outcomes, diversify its economic base, enhance its talent pool and help our nation maintain its global lead in science and technology."

The campus is expected to house more than 200 faculty members and more than 2,000 students when it is completed. The StanfordNYC academic program is designed to replicate the innovation-inspiring, job-creating, entrepreneurial culture that has been the hallmark of Stanford's foundational relationship with Silicon Valley and has spawned thousands of companies including Google, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

Stanford is committing an initial $200 million toward StanfordNYC that will include a combination of startup costs and an initial endowment to support research on the campus. If Stanford is selected by New York City, the university will launch a $1.5 billion, 10-year fundraising campaign to finance the new campus and build the endowment.

An accelerated launch of the campus is planned for 2012 in partnership with City College of New York, where Stanford would locate its academic program while the new campus is built. In addition, joint programs will be developed by CCNY and Stanford in undergraduate entrepreneurship education and to allow undergraduate students at CCNY to pursue graduate degrees at StanfordNYC. Stanford is also anticipating additional partnerships with New York-area institutions and outreach to local K-12 schools as part of a robust community engagement program.

A faculty committee has designed an academic program for StanfordNYC that draws from Stanford's top-ranked programs in engineering, computer science, entrepreneurship, graduate business and technology management. An initial emphasis will be placed on research and education related to New York's dominant industries of finance and media. Stanford's School of Engineering and Graduate School of Business, as well as its Hasso Plattner Institute of Design and Stanford Technology Ventures Program, will be located at StanfordNYC and be seamlessly integrated with the California campus through the use of tele-presence technology and online education.

"We can create a community of scholars in an entirely new environment, generating the next wave of ideas and breakthroughs," said Jim Plummer, dean of Stanford's School of Engineering. "Innovation happens when you are challenged by new problems and look at solutions from new perspectives. Our faculty is very excited about the possibilities of New York City."

StanfordNYC is designed to replicate Stanford's history of translating ideas and research discoveries directly into economic activity. If StanfordNYC compiles a track record of startups equal to even 50 percent of Stanford's historical record in Silicon Valley, over 100,000 new jobs could be created in the first 20 to 30 years of the new campus. Silicon Valley venture capitalists have indicated that they would follow Stanford to New York City.

"It is no accident – U.S. venture capital plus Stanford tech/business entrepreneurship has helped transform the world economy," said John Doerr and Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who sent a letter in support of the StanfordNYC proposal. "If NYC selects Stanford as its partner for the next great tech/business innovation center, it should help turbocharge an already growing center of innovation which is helping extend our country's leadership in technology."

StanfordNYC would occupy an iconic, state-of-the-art, environmentally sustainable campus on 10 acres on Roosevelt Island, expected to open in 2016. Of four possible locations put forth by the city, Stanford has selected Roosevelt Island, on the East River, for its proximity to Manhattan and Queens, easy public transportation access and its existing, diverse residential community. Space for teaching, research and faculty and student housing, as well as startup company incubator space, would be constructed and integrated into a natural, park-like setting with open space. Plans call for all buildings to achieve LEED Platinum status for energy efficiency, low carbon emissions and minimal use of water and other resources. More than 7,000 construction jobs are expected to be generated over the lifetime of the project.

The proposal is in response to Mayor Bloomberg's call in July for specific plans for an applied sciences facility in New York City. The city is putting forward up to $100 million to the successful institution as well as access to city-owned land. Stanford was one of 27 institutions that responded with an expression of interest last March, and has spent the past three months since the city issued the RFP developing its detailed plans. Stanford's 600-page submission includes detailed academic, financial, design and legal documents. The proposal was approved by the Stanford University Board of Trustees in early October.

After the proposals are submitted to the New York City Economic Development Corp. on Friday, the city has requested a quiet period for review and evaluation. Stanford administrators expect to travel to New York City after Thanksgiving to discuss their proposals with city officials. The city has announced that it expects to make a decision by the end of the year.
Here's a view from Manhattan of the proposed Stanford Roosevelt Island campus at night. (Enlarged Picture Here)

Proposed Roosevelt Island Campus From Stanford University/Ennead Architects, image by Redsquare, Inc.

Below is a rendering of Cornell's proposed Roosevelt Island NYC Applied Sciences & Engineering School campus


and more images of Cornell's renderings at Curbed.

Additional information on NYC Applied Science & Engineering School from previous posts and Cornell's energy sustainability plan for Roosevelt Island campus here. 

UPDATE 11/4 - October 31 Press Release from NYC.gov:
City Received 7 Responses from 17 of World’s Top Institutions, Will Announce Selection in January

Selection Will Be Based On Proposal That Will Generate the Greatest Benefit to the City for Lowest Commitment of City Resources 
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that the City has received seven qualifying responses to Applied Sciences NYC, the City’s groundbreaking initiative to build or expand a state-of-the-art engineering and applied sciences campus in New York City. Seventeen world-class institutions from around the globe, in some cases together with technology industry leaders, responded to the Request for Proposals, which seeks a university, institution or consortium to develop and operate a new or expanded campus in the City in exchange for access to City-owned land and up to $100 million in City capital. The proposals will be evaluated by the City as well as an Advisory Committee over the course of the next several weeks, with selection expected in January. After selection and a period of negotiation, the project could break ground as early as next year. Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the headquarters of NextJump, a New York City-based company that develops technology for corporate loyalty and rewards program and has about 120 employees, the majority of whom are engineers, and was joined by Deputy Mayor Robert K. Steel, New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky and NextJump CEO Charlie Kim....

...  The responses to the Applied Science NYC Request for Proposals were from the following institutions and for the following sites:
  • Amity University (Governor’s Island)
  • Carnegie Mellon University/Steiner Studios (Brooklyn Navy Yard)
  • Columbia University (Manhattanville)
  • Cornell University/Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (Roosevelt Island)
  • New York University/University of Toronto/University of Warwick (UK)/The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay/City University of New York and Carnegie Mellon (Downtown Brooklyn)
  • New York Genome Center/Mount Sinai School of Medicine/Rockefeller University/SUNY Stony Brook (Midtown Manhattan)
  • Stanford University/City College of New York (Roosevelt Island)...

2 comments :

joe carbo said...

with the sellout of eastwood 6 years ago .we can  all see the direction  roosevelt island is going in, cant we,as the minority population is getting less and less and only white  people are moving on  to this island ,very sad,, this is what rioc and the rich buildings owners want. 

rohitshankar23 said...

I think this is a great move for all schools involved and it brings a new competitive landscape to the New York City Education scene which seems to be currently dominated by great schools like New York University and Columbia. There are always people who are looking to further their education in new and exciting ways and bringing an amazing engineering program to the center of commerce will only improve New York City's image on a global scale. There are already great ways to further one's education such as signing up for a class from http://coursehorse.com/ and other similar sites.