By Sarah Trefethen
Cornell NYC Tech has chosen Forest City Ratner as the master developer for the first stage of the school’s planned Roosevelt Island Campus, it announced Monday.
Forest City will take over development of the first academic building and also build a corporate co-location building intended as office space that will allow tech industry and supporting companies to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the school’s graduate students.
The co-location building will be up to 200,000 s/f. Cornell plans to take 50,000 s/f itself, and the remainder will be leased by Forest City to corporate office tenants, though the exact terms and plans of the arrangement between the university and the developer have not been finalized.
Forest City will also build out the open space and infrastructure included in the first stage of the campus development plan, which is scheduled to open in 2017. Construction on the full 12-acre site is slated to wrap up in 2037.
“From Metro Tech to Times Square to Barclays Center and Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner has always bet on the growth of our great city and we couldn’t be more excited to play a part in this next exciting chapter,ˮ said MaryAnne Gilmartin, president and CEO of Forest City Ratner.
“With the corporate co-location building, Cornell Tech is charting new territory, and we look forward to exceeding expectations with an iconic architectural design by WEISS/MANFREDI.”
The WEISS/MANFREDI portfolio includes a number of academic projects, as well as the visitor center at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The first, 150,000 s/f academic building will be designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis.
Cornell’s goal is that the buildings on the campus will be net-zero energy consumers – meaning that they will generate as much power as they consume.
Cornell NYC Tech, which offers graduate degrees to students in engineering and computer science with a focus on information technology, is already living in close proximity to industry. While waiting for the campus to be ready, classes started last September in Google’s building at 111 Eighth Avenue.
“Cornell Tech is radically re-thinking how industry can collaborate with faculty, students and researchers, and corporate co-location is vital to making that a success,” Dan Huttenlocher, dean of Cornell Tech, said in a statement.
