Cornell Tech Set to Open New Innovative Building

NEW YORK — Cornell announced that it plans to combine industry and academia with a new corporate co-location building on its Roosevelt Island campus. This will help facilitate Cornell Tech’s mission by fostering interactions between students, faculty and industry professionals. The new building will be located at the heart of campus.

Although no details have been released about the specifics of the companies that will be placed in this building, Jeremy Soffin, spokesperson from BerlinRosen Public Affairs, ensured that it will group a mix of companies both big and small. “There will be a balance of incubator space, research and development labs, corporate innovation centers for bigger companies and rotating space for regional companies to spend time in New York City,” he said.

Cornell University’s Board of Trustees decided on Thurs. June 20 to finalize a contract with New York-based Forest City Ratner as the building’s master developer. In this position, the company will oversee the first phase of development of the first academic building, open space and other infrastructure on campus. The decision to work with Forest City Ratner comes from the company’s long record of successfully completing complex projects and making great places even greater.

The new building will be constructed around the idea of interaction between industry professionals and academics. “The building will include flexible, open floor plans with common spaces to facilitate meetings and serendipitous, informal interactions between students and companies,” Soffin said. “This is an innovative approach to bringing private companies directly into campus, and actually in the same building as students and faculty.”

The groundbreaking for the new addition to the campus is expected in early 2014. Construction on the co-location building is slated to begin in 2015. The new building will be around 200,000 square feet. The total cost of the project has yet to be determined. “Forest City Ratner is investing in the project and will own the building,” Soffin said. Cornell will lease 50,000 square feet in the building as well. This will help promote the vital link between academia and industry the university is striving for.

Although the design process for the new addition to campus is just beginning, Cornell is excited to move forward with local architectural firm WEISS/MANFREDI. Soffin stated that Cornell Tech believed that employing the combined efforts of Forest City Ratner’s clear commitment to the project and WEISS/MANFREDI’s excellent team of architects would make the best combination for the university’s vision.

Forest City Ratner Companies President and CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin recently told press, “Forest City Ratner is thrilled to partner with Cornell Tech on the creation of a world class innovative campus that will drive the growth of New York’s tech sector and economic development in the city for years to come.”

The university’s new Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (JTCII) will be housed in the co-location building as well, according to Soffin. This program, created by Founding Chairman and CEO of Qualcomm Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs and his wife Joan Klien Jacobs through a $133 million donation to Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, will become a central component of Cornell Tech’s developing campus. This program will enable students to study connective media, healthy living or building in the environment. Students will graduate with a master’s degree from Cornell Tech and a second from the Technion Institute.

The JTCII serves as an excellent example of the co-location collaboration Cornell plans to pursue with the development of the Roosevelt Island campus.