Ithacating in Cornell Heights

Image Property of Cornell University

http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2012/01/31/new-building-big-red-band-will-open-summer

Dear Cornell Daily Sun – If a building starts construction in June 2012 with a tentative completion date of January 2013, in no feasible terms will the building be open by the summer of 2012.

Anyway, semantics aside, the design of the Big Red Bandhouse (or as I like to think of it, Fischell Hall) has been released. It’s a whole lot of Big Red Boring, but I suppose its purpose is more functional than aesthetic. It fits the general theme of ultramodern buildings that the university has more than happy to construct in the past several years.

Image Property of Cornell University

With the extra large front doors open, it kinda resembles a “Dust Buster” portable vacuum.The architects are the same folks responsible for the Plantations Welcome Center.

To allay the fears of the budget-conscious, the building is expected to be paid for entirely by private donations from Big Red Band alumni (in what I imagine will be a veritable inundation of pleas to their alumni to donate). The site is the current location of a small maintenance building (the Schoellkopf Garage), which will be removed and most likely rebuilt somewhere nearby.

I’m not a fan of the design (which should come as no surprise to frequent readers of this blog), but I figure this building was meant to be functional more than anyone else.