Cornell wins contest to design campus on Roosevelt Island

The task of building an applied sciences and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island is certainly a tough one. Stanford shelved the project just within three days. But it seems that Cornell has come out as a winner in this remarkable feat as Stanford thought the project was not feasible. Winning is certainly good news for Cornell, and in addition the institute has also bagged a $350 million prize for this accomplishment. For this project, Cornell forms an alliance with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. More than $2 billion will be spent to build the 2 million square feet campus on Roosevelt Island.

Cornell plan is for an SOM-designed campus with four acres of solar panels

The island located in east of Manhattan is about 2 miles long and will house around 2500 students for its masters and doctoral programs. Although students will start to enroll from the next year, the permanent home on the campus will take a long time to come up. The project opines to overtake the place Silicon Valley enjoys when it comes to technological innovation. The campus wants to recruit and nurture talent capable of spearheading next generation companies. There has always been a dearth of engineers in New York city and this facility seeks to provide a solution for the same. In addition, the campus will also bring about a change in the small island located in between Queens and Manhattan.

The university is now planning to build a campus that will be designed by SOM Architects. The campus is destined to have four acres of solar panels, 500 geothermal wells, and 2.1 million square feet of space for more than 2,000 students.

Moreover, the initiative also plans to raise funds for start ups based in New York city, and close to $150 million will be garnered for this undertaking. Companies supported by the campus will be encouraged. The facility is now planning to engender close to 600 companies in the coming 30 years. These companies are expected to generate approximately 30,000 new jobs. Furthermore, the campus could spawn about $23 billion which will contribute towards the healthy economy of the city as well as the country.