Cornell University has the city’s go-ahead to build a technology campus on Roosevelt Island, which paves the way for construction to begin next year on the 2.1 million-square-foot project, Crain’s reported.
The City Council approved the development yesterday.
“We’ve been talking about this project for a while now,” council member Jessica Lappin told Crain’s. “It’s fantastic to be past this very significant hurdle, and to have the land-use process come to a conclusion and allow them to get started.”
With construction to begin in 2014, Lappin told Crain’s that the vote keeps the development on track to open in 2017.
As reported, the City Planning Commission greenlighted plans for the campus in late March. The panel’s approval followed the thumbs-up from Manhattan Community Board 8 in December.
The development’s first phase encompasses 790,000 square feet, which will include the school’s first academic building; all work won’t be completed until 2037.
When finished, the campus will house about 2,000 graduate students. For now, a “beta” group of computer science grad students are studying inside a Chelsea space that was donated by Google. [Crain’s] —Zachary Kussin