ITHACA, N.Y.—Spring is on the way, but tulips and daisies won’t be the only things rising from the ground this season. This month for construction updates, we’ll be taking a guided tour around Ithaca, and similar to previous roundups, with the sheer amount going on, the updates will be broken into three parts. Part one will focus on Cornell, with other galleries to be published subsequently. Pour yourself a cup of your preferred beverage, settle into your chair, and read on.
Wilson Lab / CHESS Synchrotron Expansion (Campus Road)
Construction continues on the expansion of Cornell’s high-energy particle research facility. The state-of-the-art synchrotron and operating facility, collectively called the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), is constructing new lines for x-ray beams. Meanwhile, a new above-ground facility would house High-Magnetic Field (HMF) technology and be the first of its kind in an X-ray facility. You can read more about the science behind the plans in the Voice’s July 2021 writeup here.
The expansion project will add a two-story, 17,420 square-foot building, called the “New Experimental Hall,” next to the west wall of the existing laboratory, but still connecting to the existing synchrotron. Inside will be high-bay research space housing three new experimental X-ray beamlines with associated research hutches, and an overhead bridge crane. The site would also include the typical complement of access paths for pedestrians and vehicles, lighting, bioretention/stormwater facilities, bicycle racks and landscaping with native plantings.
As cutting-edge scientific research often is, the project doesn’t come cheap—construction and outfitting the expanded CHESS facility will clock in with a price tag of about $32.6 million. The concrete shell of the experimental hall is fully formed, though it looks like the westward extension has yet to be built out. All those holes in the concrete are for specialized equipment and piping, alongside the more typical doorways and garage door bay. Structural steel bracing can be seen on the inside, and corrugated steel decking has been laid for the roof base (insulation and a waterproof membrane are likely to follow). The concrete exterior will be faced in masonry materials intended to blend in with the gorge, to “present a simple and technically appropriate face” as SWBR Architects puts it.
SWBR is working with Texas-based Lake Flato Architects on the design, and Streeter Associates is the project’s general contractor. Completion of the project is expected by October 2023.
Atkinson Hall (Tower Road)
Cornell’s $54 million Atkinson Hall interdisciplinary building is heading skyward just east of the Ag Quad on Tower Road. The foundation is fully formed, with rebar grid in place for concrete pours on the ground floor. Structural steel is advancing, primarily on the west side of the building at this time, and the concrete masonry block stairwell towers and elevator cores have been assembled. Welliver’s construction team planted the American flag at the top; construction firms often have little flourishes they use when topping out new builds, such as flags or pine trees.
According to university press releases, the new 90,000 square-foot building (I’ve also seen quotes of 105,000 square-feet, though that might be gross square footage) is “intended to foster innovative and collaborative research in priority areas of sustainability, public health, cancer biology, immunology and computational biology.” Space for faculty and staff of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and a new Master of Public Health program are included in the building’s program components.
The building utilizes the latest trends in academic construction, with ample common spaces to foster interaction among typically-cloistered researchers. It will also host open, flexible laboratory benching with shared core equipment spaces, alcoves, fume hoods and cell culture spaces arranged to support several principal investigators in each wing. “Abundant and carefully controlled” natural lighting and views work with the transparency of interior walls to create a comfortable environment for occupants.
Like with the Synchrotron project, Lake Flato Architects is in charge of the building’s design work, with additional work provided by Rochester’s SWBR Architects. The building is heading for a completion date in the summer of 2024.
Balch Hall Renovation (North Campus)
The gut renovation of Balch Hall, Cornell’s all-women freshman dorm, continues on the university’s North Campus. While Balch is under renovation, the new Toni Morrison Hall served as the all-women’s dorm for 2021-22, and Barbara McClintock Hall is serving as the women’s dorm this year.
The “full-gut renovation” of Balch, which opened all the way back in 1929, includes replacing all the windows, replacing and rebuilding some gutters and non-structural exterior walls, general masonry repair new accessible walkways, landscaping and lighting improvements. On the inside will be four new elevators and modernized mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems. The interior reconfiguration would increase Balch’s student capacity from 436 to 470 beds, and the university hopes to obtain LEED Gold certification with the improvements in energy efficiency.
Along with the reorganization of rooms and the removal of outdated sink rooms and other bathroom fixtures, new lounges will be built onto each floor while preserving the existing lounge spaces, for a total of 16 in the dormitory. The beloved Balch Arch, site of countless a cappella concerts, will be landscaped to allow for a sloped access path for improved accessibility, in addition to the stairs.
Goody Clancy Architects of Boston is in charge of design work, with local firm T.G. Miller providing the civil engineering work, and Cornell favorite Thornton Tomasetti of New York is serving as the sustainable design consultant. IBI Placemarking of Boston is the landscape architect. The Whiting Turner Contracting Company is the construction manager, with heavy duty equipment rented from Skyworks LLC. Balch Hall’s renovation is expected to be completed in time for the Fall 2024 freshman class.
Thurston Hall Addition (Engineering Quad)
Over on Cornell’s Pew Engineering Quad, work has started on the latest addition to the labyrinth that is Cornell’s College of Engineering facilities. Excavation is underway for the new $29.5 million addition to the Thurston Hall academic building.
The project calls for a 50,550 square-foot addition to the existing Thurston Hall, which was built in 1951 and renovated a number of times over the following decades. The new four-story addition by NBBJ Architects of Boston would practically double the size of the building with a northward expansion into the Engineering Quad. Don’t worry, the rock garden will be reinstalled on the quad once the building nears completion.
The addition would serve as the new home for Cornell’s Meinig School for Biomedical Engineering, Cornell’s fastest-growing engineering program. The building will host state-of-the-art laboratories and instruction space, as well as meeting rooms and study spaces, while the basement will house utility equipment and additional lab space. Some of the instructional spaces are expected to be shared with the college’s materials science and aerospace engineering programs.
Currently, the site is being excavated. Wood lagging has been installed around the foundation footprint perimeter, and stacks of PVC turquoise sewer and steel utility pipes have been delivered to the site, sitting alongside steel H-beams likely intended for use as soldier piles in the lagging walls. Plywood Huber ZIP panels have been put up over the former windows and some façade sections of Thurston Hall, which will be opened up to connect into the new addition at a later construction stage.
Alongside NBBJ, Stephen Stimson Associates has been recruited as landscape architect, and local engineering firm T.G. Miller P.C. is providing its engineering expertise with the Thurston Hall expansion project. Welliver is once again in charge of the buildout, and site signage suggests JP Reilly Construction is one of the subcontractors. which is scheduled to wrap up in time for the Fall 2024 semester.
Cornell Booth Baseball Field (Ellis Hollow and Game Farm Roads)
Construction of Cornell’s new baseball field continues in the town of Ithaca near the intersection of Ellis Hollow and Game Farm Roads, part of long-brewing plans for a multi-sport athletic complex on the site. The university’s Board of Trustees have voted to rename the field Booth Field, after former trustee and donor Richard Booth. Booth, a prominent Dallas-based financier, is a member of the Class of 1982 and was a pitcher for the Cornell baseball team during his college years.
The Booth Field project calls for constructing a new baseball stadium with a synthetic turf field, dugouts, scorecard, and bleachers with seating for up to 500 visitors. The project also includes a 15,160 square-foot support building. The support building will contain team rooms, locker rooms, bathrooms and showers, a coach’s office, an umpire’s room, batting cages, storage space and a press box. A small 590 square-foot building will be built for spectator bathrooms. Landscaping includes lighting, parking for 80 vehicles, an entry driveway and stormwater facilities.
The artificial turf has been laid, with protective fencing surrounding the field. The driveway and parking area have been graded and paved. Portions of the steel frame for the support building have been erected, and the press box/public restroom facility appears to be fully finished from the outside. While the plan is to have the stadium capable of hosting games starting this season, and arguably Cornell might be able to do that with some protective measures, the complex itself is far from complete. It is expected that the LEED Silver-designed facility won’t be finished until sometime during the summer.
International engineering firm Stantec Consulting Services is assisting Cornell with the civil engineering work on the project, and the design work is by Philadelphia-based EwingCole, which has a specialty in designing athletic facilities. LeChase Construction is the general contractor in charge of buildout.
What’s Coming Next
There are two approved projects that Cornell could begin construction at any time. One is the fairly small modular facility for the sprint football team, which will be about 1,800 square feet and still has yet to be built even though it’s basically just a foundation and two units craned off the back of trucks and bolted together. It’s missed the original construction time frame, but we’ll see what happens later this year.
The other, much more substantial project is the 133,000 square-foot Ann S. Bowers Computer and Information Science Building, which will cost about $73 million to build. While a “groundbreaking” was held last October, the actual construction start isn’t until later spring, with completion in the spring of 2025.
On the renovation side, several projects are planned, the largest of which is a $85.6 million gut renovation of the Plant Science Building on the Ag Quad. That project is expected to start in May, with renovation in multiple phases through 2026.
As for the “rumor mill”, Cornell has allotted design funding for major renovations of the Helen Newman Hall and Teagle Hall athletic buildings, and Phillips Hall on the Engineering Quad. The university is also said to be working with a third-party developer on redevelopment of the former Ithaca East Apartments site on Maple Avenue into a Maplewood-style graduate housing development, though nothing concrete has been proposed at this time.
