Morphosis' Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Center in Roosevelt Island, New York has officially opened its doors. Designed as Cornell Tech's “home base”, the academic building was named in honor of Emma and Georgina Bloomberg, in recognition of a $100 million gift from former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

With Thom Mayne as design director and Morphosis principal Ung-Joo Scott Lee as project principal, the 4-story, 160,000 sq.ft. educational hub provides traditional classrooms and large workspaces as well as clusters of “break-out” spaces, huddle rooms, and social areas for group study sessions. Students can also use the quiet rooms and micro-pods for working privately or as telephone booths. 

Aiming to be New York's first net-zero university building, the non-fossil fuel Bloomberg Center is equipped with multiple sustainable features, such as a 40,000 sq.ft. solar canopy that supports 1,465 photovoltaic panels. Morphosis collaborated with Cornell and MIT students and architectural metal fabricator Zahner to develop the building's exterior metal facade, which is optimized to “maximize transparency (daylighting and exterior views) and opacity (insulation and reducing thermal bridging)”.

The entry atrium and Lecture Hall show off views of Manhattan across the river, and passers-by can stop by the ground-level cafe. An open galleria extends through the length of the building, and also provides enclaves for impromptu meetings, and conference and multi-functional meeting rooms. A staircase rising from the main lobby creates a vertical circulation to all levels.

One percent of the building's overall budget is dedicated to art, showcasing site-specific works by notable contemporary artists like Matthew Ritchie, Michael Riedel, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, and Matthew Day Jackson. The building also displays a restored WPA-era Ilya Bolotowsky mural that was uncovered in the former Goldwater Memorial Hospital after it closed in 2014.

As part of phase one for the Cornell Tech campus. the Bloomberg Center is joined by “The Bridge” (designed by Weiss/Manfredi), which will accommodate various companies working alongside the school's academic teams. Handel Architects designed “The House”, a residential high-rise building built to Passive House standards.

Find project drawings in the gallery below.