Each fall, students return to campus with improvements from what they left in the Spring, and 2023 is no different. Although the pace of construction at Cornell fell off during the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated strain on Cornell’s finances, Cornell continues to build with funds supplied by some generous donors. Of the $5 billion being targeted for the current “Do The Greatest Good” fundraising drive, a significant portion will be earmarked for construction.
New Facilities
Atkinson Hall
Ground has already broken on Atkinson Hall made possible by a $30 million gift from David R. Atkinson ’60 and Patricia Atkinson for a new multidisciplinary building on campus, intended to foster innovative and collaborative research in priority areas of sustainability, public health, cancer biology, immunology and computational biology. The four-story, 90,000 gross square foot building on Tower Road adjacent to Rice and Bruckner halls, will house the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and the new Master of Public Health program. It is estimated to be complete by August 2024.
A Projection of the Complete Building
Wilson Lab
In the 1960’s Cornell built a half-mile circular synchrotron under Alumni Field. The original purpose was to bring electrons up to a very high speed and then smash them against a target to measure what fragments were released from the crash. Later, more powerful atom smashers were built in Batavia, IL and the CERN in Switzerland. Although Cornell’s atom smasher was no longer state-of-the-art, it does have an important secondary use as a source of X-rays that are emitted as a byproduct of having a charged particle traveling on a curve at high speeds.
Experiments are set up at a beam line and then the accelerator is turned on to generate the X-rays. The more beam lines, the more experiments can be performed simultaneously during each run of the synchrotron. Recently, Conell received a $32.6 million grant to build new beam lines and a new two-story, 17,420 square-foot experimental hall next to the west wall of the existing Wilson Laboratory.
Bowers Computer Science Building
A new building to be attached to Gates Hall will be built on Hoy Field. The 133,000 square-foot building will cost about $73 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2025. Although the flat site is already controlled by the Athletics Department, thereby making an ideal site for a new natatorium, the Bowers School is taking it without any provision for a new swimming pool.
A schematic view of the new building from Hoy Road as provided by Cornell Chronicle
Booth Baseball Field
A replacement for Hoy Field will be built southeast of the main campus at the corner of Ellis Hollow and Game Farm Roads. The new baseball stadium includes a synthetic turf field, dugouts, scorecard, and bleachers with seating for up to 500 visitors. The project also includes a 15,160 square-foot building for locker rooms, batting cages, and coaching offices. There will be an 80 car parking lot. This will be next to the recently completed soccer fields.
Schematic View of the Baseball Field
Sprint Football Locker Room
Since 1936, Cornell has had two varsity football teams, the Sprint Football team for men who weigh less than 178 lbs and a second team with no weight limit. Legendary Head Coach Terry Cullen announced his retirement in January. The social compact with the Sprint Football players was that in exchange for all of their training and sacrifice, they would get to play on the same field, wear the same quality uniforms and have locker and training facilities adjacent to the other football team. The only difference was the weight limit and the style of play.
Cornell athletics decided to give the Sprint Football locker room in Schoellkopf Hall to the Women’s Lacrosse Team. So, Cornell will build a stand-alone 1,800 sq ft locker room by joining two pre-manufactured trailers on a site at the south end of the Crescent behind the Band’s facility.
Existing Facilities
Cornell has made every effort to keep and repair its old buildings rather than tear them down for replacements.
Balch Hall Renovation
Balch was built as a women’s dorm, and the terms of the gift restricts it to women-only. This project will add four elevators, replace all windows, bathrooms, and reconfigure the bedrooms. Currently, each pair of rooms share a common room with a sink. The new bedrooms will be more in line with Cornell’s other dorms. The interior reconfiguration would increase Balch’s student capacity from 436 to 470 beds. The dorm will reopen in August 2024.
An in-progress photo of construction
Thurston Hall
Thurston Hall, which was built in 1951, has 47,000 square feet of academic space, stands between Upson and Hollister Halls on the south edge of the Pew Engineering Quad. The building will be doubled by a 50,550 square feet addition into the Quad to house the Meinig School for Biomedical Engineering, at a cost of $29.5 million.
War Memorial
Major restoration and repair of the War Memorial connecting Lyon and McFadden halls are planned over the next few years. The first step will be taken this summer costing $375,000 to remove and replace all mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) in the tunnel below the War Memorial cloister to enable a subsequent project that will remove and replace the deteriorating concrete slab.
McGraw Tower and Uris Library
Cornell will spend $4.5 to $5 million to put a new roof on the tower, replace bay windows and other external repairs. The repairs are scheduled to be completed in November 2024.
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was founded at Cornell in 1906, but never had its own house. Recently, they purchased the TKE house and in March, the City of Ithaca approved APA’s renovation and expansion plan. The house is 105 Westbourne Lane in Cornell Heights, and was originally designed by Arthur Gibb, a former Mayor of Ithaca.
Current Building vs. Proposed Design
