In an age when academics and scientists love to talk about breaking down departmental silos, blurring the barrier between town and gown, and cross-disciplinary synergy, an island might seem an odd place to site an applied sciences campus. But it is on Roosevelt Island’s meager 150 acres that Cornell University is doing just that.
In partnership with Israel’s Technion Institute, Cornell won a city-led competition to develop a science- and technology-focused university campus within the five boroughs….
SOM’s plan for the 12-acre site is organized around an “anti-quad.” Rather than look inwards toward a central green, the campus buildings are surrounded by a landscaped belt that links to most of the rest of the island. The campus is left open for the public to wander through, and its disparate functions are smushed together to foster that famous academic synergy….