The new Cornell Tech campus, designed in part by UCLA architecture professor Thom Mayne of the firm Morphosis, has been named one of Business Insider’s top seven mega-projects that will transform New York City. Business Insider, one of the largest business news sites, emphasizes ambitious development and infrastructure projects that will attract even more new residents and tourists to the renown city by the middle of the century.
Cornell, located in Ithaca, New York, is building a campus that will dominate New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Costing an estimated $2 billion, the development, which will feature dorms, offices, classroom buildings, restaurants and a hotel, will span 2 million square feet. The campus is set to open this summer.
Mayne and Morphosis were involved in designing the Bloomberg Center, which embodies Cornell Tech’s commitment to collaboration and innovation. The center will be the intellectual nerve center for the campus, bringing students and faculty together. Designed to serve as a venue for chance collisions between academia and the world at large, the building features glazed glass on the first floor so that activity within the building can be seen from outside.
Sustainability is of importance for the whole campus – while glass will make up 40 percent of the Bloomberg Center; the rest will consist of solid materials to minimize heating and cooling needs. Energy will be produced onsite to offset the annual building energy consumption, and the entire building will be topped by a solar panel array to help the building achieve net-zero energy usage.
Mayne founded Morphosis in 1972 as a collective architectural practice engaged in cross-disciplinary research and design. As design director and thought leader of Morphosis, Mayne provides overall vision and project leadership to the firm. With permanent offices in Los Angeles and New York City, the firm currently employs over 50 architects and designers.
Considered one of the world’s leading architects, Mayne has been awarded with distinguished honors that include the AIA Gold Medal in 2013, the Pritzker Prize in 2005, the Centennial Medal from the American Academy in Rome in 2009, the McDowell Medal in 2008 and the National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt in 2006, among others. He was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010; appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 2009; and honored with the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Gold Medal in 2000.
