Cornell and Technion University Wins Bid To Build Applied Science Campus in NYC
Mayor Mike Bloomberg wanted to turn a severely underutilized portion of Roosevelt Island into a tech incubator. He called on colleges and universities to put together proposals on how to make this happen and would devote $100 million plus the land to infrastructure upgrades.
Cornell University, in conjunction with Technion University of Israel, put together the winning plan, and Cornell also announced that they got a $350 million gift (source currently unknown) to make the campus a reality.
The university plans on beginning academic sessions as early as next year.
When fully realized, the campus would include 2.1 million sf of space for more than 2,000 students, and would be powered from four acres of solar panels and 500 geothermal wells.
The whole idea is to build upon NYC’s reputation in the tech sector (Silicon Alley), plus its center of venture capital and joins together one of the premier US universities with Israel’s foremost tech university (and an incubator of tech companies in its own right).