The city wants a new high-tech campus in town and lots of schools are interested in providing one, but where would they put them? And what would they look like? Good questions! The city initially offered spots on Roosevelt and Governors Island (as well as the Brooklyn Navy Yard) but not everyone is interested in those options. In the case of Cornell, Stanford and NYU the answer to the location question would be: Roosevelt Island, Roosevelt Island and Downtown Brooklyn. As for how they'd look? Just look up! Meanwhile, the two lead contenders are going into full on PR-war to win the bid.
Both Cornell, whose school would be run in conjunction with the Israeli Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and Stanford, whose school, StanfordNYC, would be run with the CCNY, are interested in putting their high-tech campuses on the southern end of of Roosevelt Island and are promising incremental build-ups eventually worth billions of dollars. Stanford, for instance, initially said that if its proposal is chosen it would launch a $1.2 billion, 10-year fundraising campaign to finance the new campus and build the endowment, creating more than 7,000 construction jobs in the process. Since then they've upped the ante and are now saying that their proposal is worth $2.5 billion!
Cornell, meanwhile, is trying to charm the GreeNYC-happy Bloomberg administration with a proposed campus that would be "oriented toward the sun’s arc to capture solar power to generate up to 1.8 megawatts a day—enough to supply 1,400 American homes. The school would also use thermal power, tapping into the earth’s heat with a 4-acre geothermal field of 400 wells, for an additional energy source." And the school is not taking no for an answer. The school's President, David Skorton, has turned to the press to sell his plan, arguing that Cornell, which already has its medical school here, is the "most logical choice to win this competition."
None of the other schools expected to submit proposals before October 28 seem interested in Roosevelt Island, though. Columbia wants to simply add a new school to its new campus in West Harlem and Carnegie Mellon and its partner Steiner Studios wants to build in the Navy Yard. Ane then there is NYU's proposal which would have the school take over yet more real estate in Downtown Brooklyn (it already bought up Poly in 2007). Specifically it wants to take over 370 Jay Street from the MTA and turn it into a Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). Considering how great a neighbor NYU has been in the Village, we sincerely hope that the city does not reward them with free real estate!
