CU life science building now scheduled for completion in less than four years
David Brand
The Life Science Technology Building, possibly the most ambitious scientific research facility ever undertaken by Cornell, will be completed in less than four years with an increased budget of $140 million. These were decisions announced last week by the leadership team for the 250,000-square-foot building that will rise on the west end of Alumni Field in the center of campus.
The announcement by Provost Biddy Martin of the accelerated pace for the new building followed an authorization by the Cornell Board of Trustees, meeting on campus during Commencement weekend. The trustees approved $4.63 million for the six-month schematic design phase, in addition to $1.14 million previously approved. The trustees also increased and capped the project budget at $140 million, up from $110 million, and set "a major goal" of completion in four years, with two years for design and two years for construction.
Martin, speaking at the leadership meeting May 27 at the Statler Hotel, held to "kick off" the building project, noted that "we need this building in fewer than four years. Our trustees emphasized that this weekend, and I want to emphasize it here."
She was addressing a large group representing all facets of the building project, from development and engineering and utilities to faculty leaders of the New Life Sciences Initiative, of which the new building will be the centerpiece. The meeting was organized by project director Robert Stundtner.
The new building's designer, noted architect Richard Meier '56, who attended the meeting, stressed his commitment to the new timetable. Turning to one of his associates, he asked for the previous schedule. Then, with a grand gesture of tearing the sheets in two, he said, "We have brought a schedule of what everyone has to do. That schedule is already obsolete because this schedule said four years, so we have to rip it up and make it in less time."
Meier told the leadership team, "I am, in a sense, a figurehead of a large team of people working on this project." The team, he said, will be focused on bringing "this wonderful work of architecture and this wonderful facility to Cornell in less than four years."
University Architect Peter Karp, who will be working closely with Meier, noted that the distinguished architect has "built wonderful buildings all over the world," including the Getty Center in Los Angeles. He recalled telling Meier, "It's a wonderful opportunity for you, the class of '56 at Cornell, to have a building on campus on a spectacular site and with a considerable program. It must be very satisfying for you. He said, 'it's not about the building, it's not about the site. The excitement for me is what's happening inside the building.'"
Martin emphasized this point when she declared, "We imagine this building and the science and thought it promotes to be the key to Cornell's stature for the next 50 to 100 years. It could not be more important."
The provost added that the building has come to be "the beacon and symbol of what we hope to achieve at Cornell." And she noted that the building must be one in which social scientists and humanists, as well as scientists, feel comfortable. "It has to be a building about science, but also a building, the aesthetics of which represent something of life apart from the science of life."
Hal Craft, vice president for administration, said the Life Science Technology Building project had arrived at "a transition time" from deciding what is required to "saying, now let's actually go for it." The site, he noted, "honestly would not have been chosen for a building of lesser importance." The goal of completion in less than four years, he said, "will be a substantial challenge."
The chair of the building's planning committee, professor of plant biology Stephen Kresovich, also stressed the importance of the building to Cornell's future. There are, he said, "a tremendous number of stakeholders represented by the incredible breadth of activities, ranging from basic biology through applied studies and plant functional genomics, representing a great breadth of interest in research, teaching and outreach."
Kresovich, who is director of the university's Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science Technologies, cautioned his colleagues that the new building "needs to be uniquely Cornellian." It has to build, he said, "on historical strengths, things that have been important to the university over the past 135 years." He mentioned plant sciences through chemistry and physics. However, he added, there also is a need to bring a "21st century of vision of Cornell," from biomedical engineering and molecular and cell biology to computational biology.
"A tremendous breadth of high-quality programs for research and teaching are going to be in the facility," he said.
Last November Cornell was awarded $25 million by New York state's Gen*NY*sis biotechnology economic development program as part of the cost of constructing the Life Science Technology Building.
Originally published in the June 5, 2003 issue of Cornell Chronicle