According to documents that Cornell has filed with the City of Ithaca, Cornell is finally moving forward with a more than $110 million renovation project for McGraw Hall. The building, which has been in dire need of repairs for more than a decade, has seen incremental improvements to preserve structural integrity while funds were allocated for more pressing projects.
In poor company
Cornell announced more than $40 million of funding from various “Cornell families” back in January. In that announcement, Cornell only stated that “design work has begun,” eschewing solid deadlines. Initial projections estimated the project’s completion in 2027. This year’s Giving Day featured a separate McGraw Hall renovation fund, but Cornell has not disclosed how much was raised, nor whether any of the $110 million now allocated came from Giving Day.
Now, Cornell’s administration has remembered McGraw – one of the first buildings erected on campus. The central structure of the “Old Stone Row” opened in 1872, seven years after the founding of Cornell University. McGraw Hall has gone mostly unchanged since then, with “piecemail renovations” throughout the past century and a half.
McGraw’s neighbors to the North and South, Morrill and White Halls, were renovated within the last 50 years. Morrill is beginning to once again show its age, having last been gutted in 1973. White’s most recent iteration is still younger than many Cornell students, with a 2003 renovation date.
More pressing projects
The early 2000s were a rough series of years for McGraw. Structural integrity declined to such an extent that Cornell stapled “temporary” metal support beams to the front of the building. Partial roof collapses, crumbling walls, and “scary” elevators have plagued McGraw for the past twenty years, with renovation projects scheduled and delayed every decade.
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All the while, Cornell has built enormous—and expensive—new buildings across campus. Just since the most recent suspension of McGraw preservation efforts in 2011, Cornell has embarked upon a $74.5 million makeover of Upson, $61 million construction of Klarman, $30 million Atkinson multipurpose building, and more recently, another $76 million building for the new Bowers school for Computing and Information Science.
This is to say nothing of the $230 million Cornell spent on the North Campus Residential Expansion project.
Meanwhile, McGraw has silently rotted in the center of the Arts Quad.
Rising prices and economic hardship encouraged Cornell to punt on fixing McGraw several times. Cornell blamed the 2011 delay, for example, on lasting consequences from the Great Recession. Large enrollment gains in STEM programs have deprioritized spending on Arts College projects, leaving scarce funding for necessary renovations.
The project begins
However, with funding finally allocated and a timetable proposed, it seems McGraw might finally receive the attention it urgently needs.
Cornell has proposed a gutting of the building. Other than the old stone walls, the building will be completely different by the time the project ends in December 2027. New “structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems” are necessary due to “deferred maintenance” of the building.
Cornell’s architects plan to gut the interior, restore the exterior, and replace the masonry supports with a steel frame. Cornell hopes the result will be a unified interior with better circulation rather than three isolated interiors separated by stone walls.
Because McGraw is a part of the “Arts Quad Historic District,” the Ithaca Landmarks Commission must approve any exterior changes, including a proposed disability access ramp.
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Cornell, in its paperwork submitted to the city, highlighted its desire to acquire a LEED silver sustainability rating for the new McGraw.
Cornell has contracted several companies to design and implement the renovations, including three massive New York City-based architectural firms. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025 with a completion date in 2027.
