Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech

Type	Private applied science school
Established	2012 (2012)
Parent institution	Cornell University
Dean	Daniel P. Huttenlocher[1]
Location	New York, NY, United States
Campus	Urban
Language	English
Website	tech.cornell.edu

Cornell Tech is an engineering campus of Cornell University located in New York City. It includes the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, a partnership between Cornell University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. It was the result of an economic development initiative of Michael Bloomberg's mayoral administration, to attract another engineering school to the city in the hope that it would produce entrepreneurial engineers who would in turn start companies which would create jobs.

Cornell Tech began operations in 2012 at a temporary site, the headquarters of Google at 111 Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, during the time a permanent campus was under construction.

History

Planning

In 2008, the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recruited Steven Strauss,^[2][3] an American economist and former McKinsey & Company management consultant,^[4] to oversee a series of research projects looking at the future of New York City's economy in the context of global economic trends. The analysis concluded that New York had significant opportunities in the high tech sector and recommended a series of initiatives to better capitalize on these developments, these recommendations included, but were not limited to: creation of a string of incubators, an early stage investment fund, NYC Big Apps. The success of these recommendations would hinge upon quality and quantity of technology talent in New York City.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Competition

In response to this recommendation, Mayor Bloomberg launched a competition to build an applied sciences campus in New York City with a focus on entrepreneurship and job creation. In December 2010,^[10] the city requested expressions of interest from leading universities. Eighteen universities responded.^[11] Next, in July 2011, New York City published a request for proposals for the construction of an applied sciences campus.^[12] The winner would receive $100 million and free land; Roosevelt Island, Governor’s Island, Downtown Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard were discussed as locations.^[13][14]

Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology were favored to win the competition, and when MIT dropped out, Stanford, which had partnered with the City College of New York, became the favorite. Cornell and Technion's joint proposal, combining Technion's reputation as the "MIT of Israel" and Cornell's presence in New York State and its land grant economic development mission, was developed in secret, in a meeting in Beijing and another three day meeting at the Cornell Club in New York City, and it was made public in October.^[15][16]

Seven formal proposals were submitted.^[17]

The New York City Economic Development Corporation awarded the project to the Cornell/Technion bid in December 2011, after Stanford pulled out of negotiations.^[18][15]

According to Crain's New York, the Cornell/Technion bid promised to create "20,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs and to result in the spinoff of some 600 companies over the first 30 years. It's expected to generate $23 billion in economic activity and $1.4 billion in tax revenues over the first three decades."^[16] The project was estimated to cost $2 billion to build.^[16]

Support

Major gifts to Cornell Tech included:

• $350 million gift from Atlantic Philanthropies, founded by Charles Feeney (Cornell '56) the owner of Duty Free Shops.
• $133 million gift by Qualcomm founder Irwin M. Jacobs (Cornell '54, BEE '56) and his wife Joan (Cornell '54).^[19]
• $50 million from Verizon for an executive education center
• $100 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies.^[20]
• Gift from Robert Frederick Smith (Cornell '85) to provide scholarships for graduates of Cornell's undergrad engineering program who are minorities in the engineering field.^[21]

Demolition and remediation

Demolition of Goldwater Hospital

Construction of the campus required demolition of the Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital's south campus and remediation of polluted land.^[14] City officials said they did not have plans to close the north campus of the hospital.^[22] During the demolition of the hospital, Cornell rescued several large murals at the hospital that were originally commissioned by the Federal Art Project, a subdivision of President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA).^[23] The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University hosted an exhibit featuring these murals in 2016.^[24] These murals, Ilya Bolotowsky, Albert Swinden, and Joseph Rugolo, will be installed in the future campus.

Design

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the campus and James Corner did landscape design.^[25] The Bloomberg Center, a "net-zero energy" building was designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects. The full campus, due to be completed in 2037, will span 12 acres (5 ha).^[26]

The first phase of construction was planned to include four buildings:

• the main academic building, called the Bloomberg Center^[27][28][29]
• The Bridge, a corporate co-location building^[30]
• The House, a residential building for students, faculty and staff, designed by Handel Architects.^[31]
• Verizon Executive Education Center^[32]

Construction

Demolition began in March 2014. Debris was removed by barge.^[33]

Construction of the residential building began in 2015; The Hudson Companies and The Related Companies were the contractors.^[31][34]

Forest City Ratner was hired to build the Bridge.^[35][36]

Curriculum

The curriculum was designed to teach both engineering and business, with a focus on entrepreneurship.^[37]

The Runway Program funds postdocs to start companies such as Nanit^[38] and Data Incubator.^[39]

References

External links

• Official website

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Faculties	Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Faculty of Architecture Faculty of Biology Faculty of Biomedical Engineering International School of Engineering Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering Schulich Faculty of Chemistry William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering & Management Faculty of Computer Science Department of Education in Technology & Science Faculty of Electrical Engineering Department of Humanities and Arts Faculty of Materials Engineering Faculty of Mathematics Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Faculty of Physics
Remote Programs	Cornell Tech Hibur Lady Davis Fellows Zeff Fellows
Multidisciplinary Centers	Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute Grand Technion Energy Program
Buildings	Israel National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space
Media	FOCUS magazine Technion LIVE
Space Research	Asher Space Research Institute Henry and Marilyn Taub and Family Science and Technology Center Israel Cosmic Ray Center
Nobel Laureates	Avram Hershko Aaron Ciechanover Dan Shechtman Arieh Warshel
People	Presidents Alumni Faculty
Other related articles	T3 – Technion Technology Transfer Israel Association for Automatic Control Technion's History