Click on link to get a great 360 degree view of the new Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech campus.A campus without precedent. This is Cornell Tech. Experience it in 360°: https://t.co/KwJeV4xWxG pic.twitter.com/F4ub6ECcbU— Cornell Tech (@cornell_tech) September 7, 2017
On Tuesday November 17, Cornell Tech Director of Capital Planning Andrew Winters provided a press update on the current status
... When we first started there was an attempt to be cooperative and then there was a batting of heads while everybody figured out how much ground they could give up and how much they weren't willing to give up. And now, just like any negotiation, we're at a point right now where we are basically being cooperative with one another. That seems to be the place Cornell likes to be at and they are starting to give some ground....Other members of RICC raised issues regarding:
... formed in 2012, is an advocate for the health and well being of the Island community and its organizations during the Cornell development. We work to urge the fulfillment of Cornell's verbal and written commitments to the community....
According to the Roosevelt Island Twitterverse:
Mock up of Cornell NYC Tech campus planned for Roosevelt Island pic.twitter.com/RfOI6ti1zU
— João-Pierre Ruth (@jpruth) December 17, 2014From the most recent Cornell Tech Construction Update:December 5 - December 19 Look Aheadand a fascinating December 2013 hour long panel discussion by architects and planners of the Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech campus including:
Foundation removals of Building F and Building C are complete. Approximately 35% of the foundation of Building D has been removed. This work is ongoing. The crushing and backfill operation work is ongoing. The Building F footprint is the furthest along, with backfill approximately 50% complete. All foundation removals and backfilling of Phase 1 buildings will be complete by the end of the year.
In the Phase 2 area, Building G has been demolished. Its foundation will be removed later this winter. Demolition work on Building J, the southernmost building, is underway and approximately 30% complete.
Work on Building E will begin within the next two weeks now that the building has been disconnected from electrical service.
The electrical ductbank work along the west roadway has begun. Crews are surveying the area to determine what work can take place within the current site fence line and what work will require temporary fence relocation into the roadway.
Meeting Date:Cornell NYC Tech is asking the CB 8 RI committee to make a recommendation on the design of the First Academic Building and the Central Utilities Plant so that the full Community Board can vote on Wednesday, January 15. Cornell will be going to the city's Public Design Commission for approval in February.
Thursday, January 9, 2014 - 6:30pm
Meeting Location:
546 Main Street
12th Floor, Roosevelt Island
New York, NY
Presentation by Cornell/Tech of the design for the first academic building and the central utilities plant.
Jeffrey Escobar and Laurence Parnes, Co-Chairs
... Three buildings have undergone design development since the approval of SOM’s original master plan: the First Academic Building (Morphosis), the Colocation Building (Weiss/Manfredi Architecture), and the 350-unit residential tower (Handel Architects). These facilities will be connected by a quarter-mile-long ‘tech walk’, designed by James Corner’s Field Operations, which serves as a spine that weaves together the ensemble of buildings whilst functioning as a public pedestrian space that spans the campus’ twelve acres....
The Cornell NYC Tech Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) officially began today with certification by NYC Planning Department. As reported in this October 15 Cornell NYC Tech Press Release:
Cornell Tech today enters the seven-month land use review process for its new tech campus in New York City. The Roosevelt Island campus will sit on a 12-acre site and is slated to open in 2017, with full build out in 2037.During the October 3 Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Common Council meeting, Cornell NYC Tech Vice President Cathy Dove outlined the ULURP Land Use time line for the project.
cornell aerial credit kilograph
To mark the beginning of the process, Cornell Tech released new images of the campus, highlighted by preliminary renderings of its first academic building with plans to create a net-zero energy development.
“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 local community are intermingled, to the sustainability of our buildings and their iconic architecture.”
The campus is being designed to connect with the city and with Roosevelt Island, welcoming the public via a new north-south pedestrian spine that opens onto a series of central open spaces
cornell esplanade credit kilograph
accessible to the public, capturing breathtaking views of the Manhattan and Queens skylines and linking to the Southpoint and new Four Freedoms parks at the Island’s southern tip. Its buildings will be designed to seamlessly connect outdoor and indoor spaces,
cornell courtyard credit kilograph
highlighted by a large public café on the ground floor of the academic building that spills into the open space in good weather. The current plan to achieve net-zero energy for the academic building is via a rooftop photovoltaic canopy that will generate much of the energy needed to make it one of the largest energy-neutral buildings in the U.S. The campus master plan is being designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP, with the first academic building being designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne and Morphosis Architects.
CORNELL ATRIUM credit morphosis archititects
“While we officially start the public review process today, Cornell Tech has worked hard over the past nine months to create a robust dialogue with our new neighbors on Roosevelt Island and across the city,” said Cathy Dove, Vice President of Cornell Tech. “The campus plan was designed to be open to everyone, and we look forward to sharing this unique vision with all New Yorkers over the next seven months and beyond.”
Construction on Roosevelt Island is expected to begin in 2014, with the first phase of the campus due to open in 2017. The first phase of the campus is expected to include the first academic building, a corporate co-location building, an executive education center with hotel facilities, a residential building for students and faculty and 125,000 square feet of public open space. At full build in 2037, the campus will include up to 2.1 million square feet of development, housing approximately 2,000 full-time graduate students.
The start of the public review process for the Roosevelt Island campus is another major milestone for Cornell Tech. The campus is now accepting applications for a “beta” class of computer science master of engineering students, which will begin classes in January in temporary space donated by Google in Chelsea. The campus soon will be launching additional academic programs, is actively recruiting star faculty, developing a distinctive new model of tech entrepreneurship, and designing its permanent campus on Roosevelt Island. Earlier this month, Cornell Tech announced a first of its kind partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce to bring full-time U.S. Patent and Trademark Office personnel to the campus to promote innovation and economic development.
Cornell University, with its academic partner the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, was selected in December 2011 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to build the applied science and engineering campus, currently located in Chelsea until the permanent campus opens. The new campus is offering a distinctive model of graduate tech education that fuses educational excellence with real-world commercial applications and entrepreneurship, rooted in the latest academic research. Students, faculty and industry experts will learn and work together to launch ideas and create new ventures that have global impact. The campus will attract the best and brightest in technology, immerse them in an entrepreneurial culture with deep ties to the local business community, and spur the creation of new companies and new industries in New York City. The updated campus master plan and preliminary renderings of the first academic building released today reflect Cornell Tech’s commitment to innovation not only in the academic program for the campus but also in its physical development.
... As shown in the figure, the Phase 1 buildings, which would include academic, corporate co-location, residential, and Executive Education Center buildings, would be developed in the northern portion of the project site. The Phase 1 central utility plant would be located toward the northern edge of the site.Below is the anticipated Cornell NYC Tech construction schedule (Page EIS Ch 20 Page 4)
Open space would also be included as part of Phase 1. Specifically, Phase 1 would include:
Approximately 10,000 gsf of campus-oriented retail would be included on the site and could include uses such as a restaurant, cafés, newsstand, or bookstore.
- A Cornell building for academic purposes. This building is anticipated to be approximately 150,000 gsf in size and could be up to 8 stories in height. At this time, designs for this building reflect an academic building that has a 30,150 sf footprint and is five stories tall (approximately 70 feet, 77 feet including the building canopy).
- A corporate co-location building. This building is anticipated to be approximately 150,000 sf in size and could be up to 8 stories in height. This building would house approximately 100,000 sf of corporate co-location use and 50,000 sf of academic space. At this time, designs for this building reflect a corporate co-location building that has a 35,000 sf footprint and is five stories tall (approximately 80 feet).
- A residential building of approximately 300,000 sf for campus faculty and students. This building is anticipated to be up to approximately 30 stories in height (approximately 320 feet) with current designs showing a 10,800 sf footprint.
- An Executive Education Center. This building would be approximately 170,000 sf in size with up to 225 hotel rooms. The conference facility would occupy approximately 25,000 gsf of the building. It is anticipated that the hotel would rise up to approximately 17 stories (200 feet) and have a 20,500 sf footprint.
The central utility plant would house in-coming utility services and provide space for centralized electric production or co-generation facilities. As discussed above, Cornell has set a goal to achieve net-zero energy consumption for its Phase 1 academic building. To meet this goal, an array of photovoltaic (PV) panels may be constructed above the roof of the academic building; it may also extend over a portion of the central spine (creating a canopy), and possibly continue over the roof of the corporate co-location building (see Figure S-6).
The open space to be developed as part of Phase 1 would total 1.3 acres. Portions of the southern portion of the project site are anticipated to be developed with several interim uses, potentially including a nursery and other vegetated surfaces (such as a planted meadow). As part of Phase 1, the roadway circling the project site would be widened with temporary construction to provide a functional 32-foot-wide travelway around the project site. The portion of the roadway adjacent to the Phase 1 development would be built to final conditions as the Phase 1 buildings are completed.....
Click Image To Enlarge Phase 1 Illustrative Site Plan (Page 7 Executive Summary)
Executive Summary Page 6 (Click To Enlarge)
... Roosevelt Island is served by the Roosevelt Island Bridge, which has a 36-ton-gross vehicle weight restriction. Therefore, as in other construction projects on Roosevelt Island, all trucks used for construction of the proposed project would meet this weight requirement. At limited times during construction, if a large piece of construction equipment (i.e., tower crane) could not be transported over the Roosevelt Island Bridge due to the weight restriction, the equipment would be transported via barges. Cornell is assessing the feasibility of barging as an alternative to truck material deliveries. However, no practical and feasible methods of barging have been identified at this time....The entire Cornell NYC Tech EIS is here. It is voluminous with lots of information about the project.
A canopy of solar cells, a nearly classroom-free academic center, cafes open to the public and even a hotel. The new campus of the Cornell University graduate school for technology is expected to transform Roosevelt Island from a sleepy bedroom community into a high-technology hothouse, and indeed, the plans to be formally unveiled for the campus on Monday bear little resemblance to anything that is there now....and included these comments from Roosevelt Islanders:
... The island is traversed by one central road, Main Street, and accessible by car by the Roosevelt Island Bridge, which connects it to Queens. University officials said they planned to bring construction and demolition materials by road, rather than barge, which they said would greatly increase the cost.Click here for the entire NY Times article.
That could turn out to be the most controversial aspect of the project. Noise from garbage trucks is already a problem, as is gridlock, said Frank Farance, 54, the chairman of the planning committee of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association.
“I think the community will have strong opposition to having the roads tied up that way,” Mr. Farance said. Also, he said, the bridge ramps and roads seem unlikely to hold up under the increased traffic. It would be foolhardy, he said, to depend on “this very weak infrastructure that might fall apart.”
Still, Oscar Hernandez, the manager of Nonno’s Focacceria and Pizzeria on Main Street, was hopeful. “We expect to have a lot more business with Cornell,” he said. Mr. Hernandez said he was not concerned that the campus would have cafes open to the public. “We make good food here,” he said.
... Andrew Winters, who's spearheading the planning for Cornell Tech, declined to say how much the campus is expected to cost. Developers would pay to put up some of the buildings — those intended for companies' and nonprofits' use — and then would recoup money by leasing them to Cornell and other tenants, officials said....On October 22, Cornell will present their plans to the Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island Task Force at the Manhattan Park Theater Club on Roosevelt Island.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT a public scoping meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, at the Manhattan Park Community Center, 8 River Road, Roosevelt Island, New York, at 6:30 P.M. The purpose of the scoping meeting is to provide the public with the opportunity to comment on the draft scope of work proposed to be used to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed CornellNYC Tech Campus project. Written comments on the draft scope may also be submitted to the address below until 5:00 P.M. Friday, June 8, 2012....Here's what will be discussed according to this summary of the project from the Draft Scope of Work to Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the CornellNYC Tech Project (Page 1-2):
... The first phase of the CornellNYC Tech project, which Cornell University (Cornell) would undertake in collaboration with Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, is expected to be constructed and begin operations on Roosevelt Island in Summer 2017; 2018 will be the first full year of operation.and (Page 4):
Phase 1 would consist of up to a maximum of 790,000 gross square feet (gsf) of development consisting of approximately 200,000 gsf of academic research space, 300,000 gsf of residential space (442 units), 100,000 gsf of partner research and development space, and 170,000 gsf for an academic-oriented hotel with conference facilities. Up to another 20,000 gsf would be developed as a central energy plant. Phase 2, expected to be completed by 2037, would add a maximum of 1.34 million gsf consisting of approximately 420,000 gsf of academic research space, 500,000 gsf of residential space (652 units), 400,000 gsf of partner research and development (R&D) space, and another 20,000 gsf central energy plant. In total, the maximum potential CornellNYC Tech project program is assumed to comprise 2.13 million gsf of development consisting of 620,000 gsf of academic research space, 800,000 gsf of residential space (1,094 units), 500,000 gsf of partner R&D space, 170,000 gsf of an academic-oriented hotel with conference facilities, and 40,000 gsf for the central energy plants. Up to approximately 25,000 gsf of campus-oriented retail would be provided within this program....
... parking may be provided for the academic-oriented hotel and conference facilities and for the three partner research and development buildings. It is anticipated that approximately 500 spaces would be provided at the project site, with 250 spaces in Phase 1 and another 250 spaces provided in Phase 2....and (page 5-6):
... The proposed project would be centered on a new outdoor north-south connection or “spine” that would extend at-grade through the project site. A series of publicly-accessible open spaces would extend from the edge of the site inward to this spine. The proposed buildings would be organized around both the spine and the network of open spaces with the main entries to the buildings located along the north-south spine.and (Page 3-4):
Preliminarily, the project buildings are expected to have approximately the following characteristics:
The academic research buildings would be 8 to 14 stories with the tallest of the three buildings reaching 165 to 185 feet in height.
The residential buildings would be taller, approximately 15 to 30 stories, with the tallest of the four residential buildings reaching 280 to 320 feet in height.
The hotel and conference facilities would be 15 stories, or up to 180 feet in height.
The partner R&D buildings would be 8 to 14 stories with the tallest of the three buildings reaching 165 to 185 feet in height.
The proposed buildings would be oriented on the project site so that a series of publicly accessible open spaces are created (see “Open Space,” below).
OPEN SPACE
The proposed project would provide approximately 7.5 acres of publicly-accessible open spaces on the project site and would include provision of both active and passive uses.
In addition, the project would provide a bicycle path in the ring road around the project site that would provide connections to the parks south of the site as well as to open space and recreation facilities north of the project site.
SITE ACCESS AND CIRCULATION
The existing ring road would be mapped with a 50 foot right-of-way, which would allow for one travel lane and a parking lane, with a sidewalk adjacent to the project site. As in the existing condition, the road would be one-way clockwise with southbound traffic on the east side of the project site and northbound traffic on the west side. The ring road would provide access to the campus’s loading areas, which would be located primarily on the east side of the project site. Drop off and pick up areas may be provided in front of the hotel and potentially at central locations serving the academic buildings.
SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES
The proposed project would incorporate a number of sustainable design measures that would reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions. In addition to meeting all applicable local laws regarding energy, Cornell has agreed to achieve a minimum of LEED® Silver certification for all project buildings. As part of the sustainable design energy measures, to the extent feasible, the proposed project may include the following:
Cornell has set a goal to achieve net-zero energy consumption for its Phase 1 academic building. This means that the campus collectively would generate the electricity, heat, and chilled water that would offset the energy use of the Phase 1 academic building on an annual basis.
- On-site energy plants that would total approximately 40,000 gsf. The energy plants would supply power, chilled water, and heat to the campus.
- Photovoltaic (PV) panels throughout the site (e.g., on the roofs of the proposed buildings and possibly elsewhere on the site).
- A system of up to 400 geothermal wells.
In addition to energy measures, the proposed project would be planned and designed to achieve
other sustainability targets....
... PROPOSED ACTIONSSo, if you are interested in the future of Roosevelt Island and the new Cornell Technion NYC Tech School, come to the meeting starting 6:30 PM at the Manhattan Park Community Center (8 River Road)
The proposed actions required to facilitate the proposed project are as follows:
Other potential approvals, such as approvals from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), may also be required. It is also possible that an approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) would be required with respect to a geothermal well system that may be part of the project....
- Amendment of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (NYCHHC) operating agreement with the City by the Corporation Board in order to surrender a portion of the project site.
- Disposition of City-owned property from the City of New York to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) for a subsequent proposed long-term lease and potential future sale to Cornell.
- Mayoral approval of the lease and sale terms of the disposition parcels pursuant to Section 384(b)(4) of the New York City Charter.
- RIOC approval of a modification of the City’s lease with RIOC.
- Zoning Map amendment to change the project site and surrounding area zoning from R7-2 to C4-5 as shown on Figure 4.
- Zoning Text amendment to create the Special Southern Roosevelt Island District and to establish special bulk, use, parking and waterfront controls for the rezoning area.
- City Map Amendment to map the one-way ring road surrounding the project site as a City street
a revisioning of Island open spaces with attention to safety, education and public health.I was not able to attend but several of those who did were very impressed including this commenter:
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. (RIOC) Director Jonathan Kalkin who initiated the Study Tweeted:Eden's presentation was excellent. She is very professional and it is a well thought out plan. It is also one that is a few small suggestions, not one master plan.
Cornell U presents their Roosevelt Island Landscape and Park Design Study. Great Job!For those not able to attend, Eden sent me the presentation to share with the community. Unfortunately, the study is quite large and had to be broken up into eight separate files. I hope that doesn't stop you from reading the whole thing.
Phase One: Safe, ADA-compliant pedestrian circulation & community gardeningAmong their proposals are (page 15)
* Four greenways: four paths to improve existing pedestrian pathways
* Temporary greenhouse & nursery for container plants: partnership between residents, schools, & hospital for use
Phase Two: Expansion of Community Gardens and Public Plazas
* Construction of hardscapedplazas, community garden, and landscaping areas
Phase Three: Green Energy Projects
* Informed decisions about site-appropriate sources for energy– Informed decisions about site-appropriate sources for energy
* Agreement with power company on an energy cost reduction program for the whole island
* Installation of green energy projects
Creating Plazas: Unify areas that contain several disconnected public spaces, using hardscaped, tree-lined plazas that can be used for performances, community events, and educational programs.The Cornell Group is seeking any additional feedback on their proposals (Page 19).
Redesigning for existing green spaces: Extend community gardens into Redesigning for existing green spaces: Extend community gardens into permanent locations; if a location is available temporarily, a greenhouse and nursery for container plants can be set up for residential, educational, and therapeutic use. Utilize disused spaces for stormwater-managing landscapes and/or native plant educational gardens.
Click To Enlarge Image and tell your favorite Roosevelt Island places you like and dislike.
