Rebecca Maloney
Americas Press Office ,Boston
The cutting-edge centre will be the first new academic building on the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island.
Arup recently celebrated the commencement of construction for the 150,000ft2 Bloomberg Center, the first academic building on the Cornell Tech campus, designed to achieve net-zero energy and LEED Platinum certification. The ceremony on 16 June 2015 was attended by the present and past mayors of New York City, representatives from New York State, and Cornell University and its development partners including Morphosis Architects, Arup, and site master plan architects Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
Arup’s integrated design approach aimed to create an exemplary green building. Sustainability goals included meeting the functional requirements of an advanced academic facility, while creating a building that is low carbon, energy-efficient, healthy and pleasant to be in, and designed in accordance with the LEED New Construction 2009 rating system.
Design elements include roof-mounted photovoltaic systems that are part of a campus-wide array of solar panels dedicated to the Bloomberg Center and ground source heat pumps that harness the constant temperature of the earth to both warm and cool the building. The building — located on an island in the East River — is also designed to be resilient to potential flood conditions over its design life.
“Cornell University has a longstanding commitment to sustainability and that includes Cornell Tech’s developing campus on Roosevelt Island, which will be among the most energy efficient campuses in the world. Through strong communication and a strongly collaborative relationship, Cornell, Arup, and Morphosis were able to push the boundaries of what can be achieved towards net-zero energy on a campus building of this scale.
Diana Allegretti, assistant director for design and construction at Cornell Tech
As part of our full-service approach to the project, we performed structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering; smart building consulting; acoustic consulting; audiovisual consulting; IT and communications consulting; façade engineering; lighting design; security consulting; energy analysis; and sustainability consulting. Through close collaboration with Cornell Tech and Morphosis, Arup led the project team in designing one of the smartest buildings in the world.