Ithacating in Cornell Heights

Upson Hall’s bright turquoise walls stand out among the winter greys. Students and staff can thank (or curse) the spray-on moisture barrier for the splash of color. To see what the sheathing looks like without the barrier, photo #9 below shows a little bit of the white gypsum board in the upper left, near the southwest corner of Upson.

The unsheathed, unsprayed section on the northeast corner remains uncovered so that the new structural steel for the bump-out can be erected, while the steel for the northwest bump-out has already been assembled and installed. The plastic is still up over the exterior walls, keeping the winter winds at bay.

According to the project website, general contractor The Pike Company (Rochester office) is cutting/coring shafts through the first floor to the fifth floor, and demolition activities are underway in the basement. The shafts not only serve as ingress/egress, they’re designed to serve as social spaces and integrate the floors of the building. Utilities rough-ins, framing and drywall installation are underway on the upper three floors where interior work is further along, while work on the first and second floors won’t begin major work until August 2016. Part of the basement will be finished in the first year of construction, and the rest of the basement in the second year. Basically, half the building is still occupied at any given time during construction.

The $74.5 million dollar project is part of a larger series of renovations to the Engineering Quad that will result in $300 million in improvements over a decade. While the project will only add about 4,000 SF to the 156,000 SF building, the renovation are expected to help the engineering school adapt to changing academic space needs and technology, and make the building much more energy efficient. The college is paying for the project with a mix of philanthropy and operating funds. A full FAQ is available on Cornell Engineering’s website here.

Along with Cornell’s internal project management team, the project is designed by New York City firms LTL Architects, Perkins+Will, and Thornton Tomasetti.