The $2-billion Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island will at full build-out total 2 million square feet of mixed-use space.

NEW YORK CITY—The first phase of the planned $2-billion Cornell Tech Campus opened on Wednesday on Roosevelt Island. A host of university, as well as state and city leaders attended the dedication ceremony for the three completed buildings, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated $100 million to the groundbreaking initiative.

Cornell Tech, touted by city and Cornell University officials as the first campus built for the digital age, broke ground in 2015, but originated back in 2011 when Cornell Tech was named the winner of then Mayor Bloomberg's administration's Applied Sciences Competition. The Cornell Tech proposal was provided with land on Roosevelt Island and $100 million in city capital to build the tech campus.

The project, being developed on 12 acres of city-owned land on Roosevelt Island, is a partnership between Cornell University and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. At full build-out Cornell Tech is expected to produce up to 8,000 permanent jobs, hundreds of spin-off companies and more than $23 billion in economic activity over a period of 35 years. The project will total approximately 2 million square feet of state of the art buildings, more than two acres of open space and will be home to more than 2,000 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff.

Former New York City Mayor Bloomberg says of the milestone achieved at the Cornell Tech campus, “Cornell Tech is an investment in the future of New York City—a future that belongs to the generations to come, and the students here will help build it. Technological innovation played a central role in New York City becoming a global economic capital—and it must continue to play a central role for New York to remain a global economic capital.”

The three buildings completed as part of the first phase of the project include The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Center, the first academic building on the campus that was funded primarily from a $100-million gift from the from Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2014. Also part of the first phase is The Bridge, designed by WEISS/MANFREDI and developed by Forest City New York. Tech and investment firm Two Sigma is opening a Collision Lab in the building where engineers from its R&D team will tackle difficult challenges away from the company's main campus, and where start-ups backed by Two Sigma Ventures can thrive in an intense, productive and creative environment, Cornell Tech states in an announcement. Citigroup is taking nearly 11,000 square feet of space at the building to engage with Cornell University students, faculty, researchers, and startups to work on emerging technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and big data applications, biometric authentication, Internet of Things, and cyber security. Ferrero International S.A., one of the world's largest manufacturers of chocolates, is taking space for its Open Innovation Science division to explore digital age innovation in the food industry. Cornell has leased 89,000 square feet of space at the 230,000-square-foot building.

Also part of the first phase is the 270-foot tall The House, designed by Handel Architects and developed by The Hudson Companies and Related Companies. The building that houses Cornell faculty, staff and students, is the tallest and largest residential Passive House high-rise in the world. Passive House is a strict international building standard that drastically reduces energy consumption while creating a healthier and more comfortable living environment for a fraction of residents' usual energy costs.

“This new campus will serve as a hub for technological innovation and will be a tremendous addition to New York City,” says Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau. “We are proud to have partnered with Hudson Companies and Cornell on 'The House,' likely the most sustainable residential tower to ever be built, and to have played a role in making this great project a reality.”

Cornell Tech started up in a temporary space provided by Google and has already graduated more than 300 masters and doctoral students. Cornell Tech's 30-member faculty has launched research groups in the areas of human-computer interaction and social computing, security and privacy, artificial intelligence, data and modeling, and business, law and policy.

“The opening of our new campus brings together academic disciplines critical to the digital transformation of society and the economy, together with companies, early stage investors, and government to spark innovation and help improve the lives of people throughout the city, country and world,” says Cornell Tech Dean Daniel Huttenlocher.

With the completion of the first phase, later this fall Cornell Tech will begin construction on the 360,000-square-foot Verizon Executive Education Center and the 196-room Graduate Roosevelt Island Hotel designed by architectural firm Snøhetta and built in partnership with AJ Capital Partners, which is currently scheduled for opening in 2019.

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Roosevelt Island Officially Goes Tech

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