Cornell announces new planned science building

Earlier this month, Cornell University announced that, in 2023, construction will begin on a new, state-of-the-art academic building meant to “accommodate the college’s rapid growth, promote student and faculty collaborations and create an open landscaped green space with Bill and Melinda Gates Hall,” according to the campus’s Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science (Bowers CIS).

According to Cornell Chronicle’s Tom Fleischman on Bowers CIS’s website (tinyurl.com/yx92pdqj), the new building will “provide space and maintain community for Bowers CIS, where 76% of all Cornell undergraduates take at least one class.”

“Student enrollment in computer science, information science, and statistics and data science is increasing at a pace unmatched anywhere at the university,” said Kavita Bala, dean of Bowers CIS, in an email. “Over the last decade, there has been a sixfold growth in enrollment, and this spring, we passed the milestone of 2,000 student majors. It is truly an exciting time in the college, and the new building supports rising enrollment and hiring of additional faculty to advance our innovative, cross-disciplinary teaching and research.”

The new building is expected to open in 2025 and will bring Bowers CIS’s three departments — computer science, information science, and statistics and data science — into a single complex.

“Right now, faculty and staff are located throughout campus,” Bala said. “This new, unified complex will bring our three departments together as a coherent and collaborative whole, which has a huge intellectual benefit and will help build a strong sense of community. The new building will also provide space for robotics, maker labs, and active learning opportunities that are very much needed for our research and in providing hands-on experience for our students.”

The building’s site, located south of Gates Hall, is currently occupied by Cornell’s NCAA Division I baseball field, so the university will be relocating the field to the corner of Ellis Hollow and Game Farm roads to make room for the new project. Construction for this relocation will begin later this year and is expected to be completed in time for the 2023 season.

As far as what the building will look like, the current design is for an L-shaped, four-story building. A bridge on the east will connect the new building to Gates Hall, and together, the two buildings will form an “open landscaped green space that will provide a place for gathering and events, while also strengthening the identity of Bowers CIS,” according to Fleischman.

As for the building’s layout, the ground floor will house the active elements like the café, common gathering area, large classrooms and spaces for maker and builder labs. The other three floors “will house research and administrative offices, research labs, associated collaboration spaces and meeting spaces,” as Fleischman detailed.

Funding for the project largely comes from a 2020 gift from Ann S. Bowers, a 1959 Cornell graduate and Bowers CIS’s namesake.

Bala explained that much of the new building’s design was influenced by input from people throughout the Cornell community, including staff and students.

“Our community is very involved in the planning and design process through a variety of student, faculty and staff focus groups and meetings,” she said. “Even when it came to selecting an architect, we specifically partnered with a firm who valued engaging with community members throughout the process.”

The university hired Boston-based architects Leers Weinzapfel and landscape architects Olin Studio to design the new building, according to Fleischman. Bala added that both prioritized student input in the design process.

“An important priority — specifically students — was to create a variety of collaboration and meeting spaces which will foster interdisciplinary exchange across domains,” she said. “From a café and event space to multi-purpose open areas and meeting rooms of all sizes, this concept has been integrated into every part of the building and the surrounding green space.”

Bala said the final design received widespread support.

“This is a really exciting time for our college, and we have heard overwhelmingly positive feedback on the building and draft designs,” she said.

As for the future of this project, while there are no projected delays currently, Bala acknowledged that the pandemic has made construction projects difficult to schedule.

“As with all building projects right now, there is the possibility of experiencing delays or changing costs,” she said. “We are confident in our planning and partners and in the building opening in 2025.”

As for the coming months, Bala said that Cornell “will continue to work with our community and partners on refining the design and finalizing construction plans.”

Those interested can learn more about the project at tinyurl.com/yx92pdqj.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.