With three months filed away since my last trip out to the Boiceville Cottages, it seems like a good time for an update.
The pace of construction has picked up with the onset of the warm half of the year. The stucco homes with pea green timber trim have been completed. Three homes that were sheathed and had only a few windows fitted in February have progressed have now been fully fitted, stucco has been applied, and an attractive canary yellow timber trim is being attached to the new homes. Four more homes (stucco with teal timber trim) have started since last February, and these are not as far along – some of the red waterproof sheathing is still visible while the exterior finishes are being applied. Three concrete slab foundations, outlined with blue waterproofing (the covering might be for cement board being used to protect the slab insulation) are ready for new house construction in the near future. Suffice it to say, given the amount of disturbed land nearby, more slabs and more homes are a likely bet as we press on towards summer. So far, there looks to be at least 17 units completed during this calendar year.
A couple more community features have also been added – a small wooden footbridge now crosses the neck of the pond, and a simple, modern looking bus stop shelter has been built near the meeting house.
Boiceville is in the midst of a 75-unit expansion, which will bring the number of units on the property to 135. Most of the units are 1 and 2-bedroom cottages, built in clusters of three, although a few “gatehouse” rowhouses offer studios and 3-bedroom units. The initial 24 units were built from 1996-97, with another 36 units built in the late 2000s.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
You may have covered this before BC, but I’m curious about the cost of these rascals (purchase or rent). Seems to me Tompkins County could add hundreds of housing units every year and it would take ages to catch up with demand. **shrug**
These things are so cute. It’s a shame they’re out in the middle of nowhere, because I know a lot of grad students who would prefer a detached one-bedroom cottage like this to a one-bedroom apartment carved out of a big old house in Fall Creek.
Absolutely. A little grid of these within walking distance of downtown/Collegetown and with access to more frequent public transportation would be perfect.
Heck, Cornell is about to close Maplewood anyway because it’s falling apart – why not tear it down and build some cottages there instead? It would be about the same density and much nicer than the current setup, which looks like a trailer park. Then maybe they could get more tenants to stay instead of treating it as a last resort and leaving after the first year.
[…] – To loyal reader “CS PhD”, I honestly had no idea what you were referring to in your comment on the Boiceville post until a Cornell press release reached by inbox a couple hours later. I did reach out to Ithaca East […]
I refer to Boiceville as the “Smurf Village”. It is just way! to cute.