…To shape the campus layout, Cornell Tech turned to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). The firm’s master plan, which eschews the usual collegiate trappings of campus walls and gates, places a series of schematic volumes so that the buildings-to-come would define oblique view corridors of the Manhattan skyline and the Queens waterfront.
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Together with the circulation route, the amount of public space provided is considerably more than the 20 percent stipulated in Cornell Tech’s agreement with the city, according to Colin Koop, a design director for SOM.