News Tidbits 9/30/2011: A Big Red Bandhouse

30 09 2011

At my time at Cornell, I was fortunate enough to have friends in the Big Red Band, and I could listen to all their stories/drunk antics when I was at work (I left with the impression that the Big Red Band was basically like an extra-large fraternity with talent). I never really cared to pay much attention to the Bandies because it was never where my interest lied; I didn’t follow CU Athletics, and a big school at Cornell could afford to let people diverge into their separate interests, and for me it lay elsewhere. But, I can imagine a few certain alumni that I know must be celebrating right now.

According to the monthly alumni newsletter, the Big Red Band is about to get a facility of their own. Thanks to some large finacial contributions from band alumni David and Sarah Fischell (Fischell Hall? I think so!), the initial funding/planning is underway for a multi-million dollar band facility that will be located behind the Schoellkopf Crescent.

If I had to venture a guess on the exact siting, I would say somewhere on the parking lot, or close to the substation.  The upcoming expansion of Wilson Lab will prevent any other new structure from being built west of that facility.

As for the architecture firm, the name is familiar to Cornell – Baird Sampson Neuert, out of Toronto. They previously designed the Nevin Welcome Center in the the Plantations, and I’m sure whatever they design for the Bandhouse will only further the firm’s commitment to modern/ultramodern, geometric structures. The structure, though still in the design stage, it expected to have 6,400 sq ft and be at least three stories tall. The height is necessary due to sound pressures created by hundreds of musical instruments created at once, so a large volume is needed to spread out the force. Groundbreaking is expected to occur next year, with completion in Spring 2013, and dedication at the 2013 Homecoming, where the Big Red Band alumni group hopes to gather 500 muscially-inclined alumni for the event.


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News Tidbits 9/15/11: Cornell Construction Continues

15 09 2011

So, two tidbits:

In what is most certainly a unique case for CU facility projects (and likely only a handful of cases nationwide), a proposed campus building will be designed by students. The building is a “Sustainable Research Facility” that is to serve as home to the (what else?) Center for a Sustainable Future, which received an $80 million dollar donation last year from deep-pocketed alumnus David Atkinson ’60.

The building is designed to proposed to have a 6,000 sq. ft footprint and be 2-3 stories. Three sites are being considered – two on the east side of campus (I’m thinking near Judd Falls Road), and one site near Dilmun Hill Student Farm, which sits at the southeast corner of 366 and Pine Tree Road (shown in the Google Map below).

Or, if they’re keen on following the master plan, there’s a couple of prime sites for smaller building proposals that they might want to consider. The project is slated to start in summer 2012, with major construction starting the following year and finishing in time for Cornell’s 150th anniversary in 2015.

***

The other news tidbit is that Gates Hall has finally appeared on the planning board agenda in its full proposal form (the other items on the agenda are the 5-story apartment building proposed for the Challenge Industries site, and the new hotel down by Manos Diner). Quoting the site plan review:

The applicant is proposing to construct a four‐story building with 103,000 gross SF on a 56,000 SF building site, located at the southeast corner of Hoy and Campus Roads, and the expansion of an existing motorcycle parking lot adjacent to Barton Hall to incorporate 3 accessible spaces. The building will have a steel structure and will be composed entirely of a curtain wall system with 50% clear glazing and 50% spandrel glass. The exterior of the curtain wall will be constructed of perforated stainless steel panels, folded along the exterior to provide a 3‐dimensional surface, and allow for both daylight penetration and sun shading. Site work will require the demolition of the existing 51‐car surface parking area, walkways and vegetation, including 13 mature trees, and the construction of a drop‐off & delivery area, with a curb cut on Hoy Road, to the south of the building, sidewalks along Hoy and Campus Roads, a pull‐off area on Campus Road, an entry plaza, landscaping, and other site improvements. The project is in the U‐1 Zoning District.

I’m still not a fan.


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News Tidbits 8/22/11: Kappa Delta’s Swanky Renovation

22 08 2011

It would be nice to live in Ithaca, but since I don’t, I increasingly find about construction projects from word-of-mouth rather than investigating on my own. In correspondence with “BB” from the Milstein Hall entry, he briefly mentioned that he’d take some photos of KD’s renovation project.

It piqued my curiosity because that was the first time I had ever heard about it. My first thought was that it may not have been an immense piece of work because I hadn’t seen anything in the planning board minutes from the city. But, I decided to quickly check online to see if there was anything special about this construction project.

I barely recognized the house.

Here’s the before photo, from my own archives (dated July 16, 2008).

Here’s an after image from a construction blog on their website:

It’s a pitifully small photo, but I’ll rectify that when I take a photo at Homecoming. Note that the west wall (right side) visible in the before image is now the front entrance.

The most substantial change is the construction of a generous wrap-around porch from Sisson Place onto Triphammer Road. The construction itself isn’t expanding the structure much, about 800 sq. ft on the first floor (based off what my strained eyes can pull from the elevations image at top). But the exterior reclad with an emphasis on a traditional appearance does wonders for what was arguably one of the more rundown-looking sorority houses on campus, creating a more graceful, less bunker-like presence. According to the webpage, the renovation cost is around $400,000.

Regarding the comment on the webpage about Triphammer Road being the original entrance location, I don’t have any verification of that, but it is quite likely. KD moved to its current location around 1923 and underwent several renovations/expansions in the years since.

In terms of exterior alteration, this is probably one of the most substantial changes since Sigma Pi built a new house in the mid-1990s. I must admit that the final result looks impressive.


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Cornell’s Rapidly Evolving Late-Night Scene

8 08 2011

This entry was inspired by the latest set of news, that Johnny O’s is closed. This follows the news that Dino’s closed earlier this summer, reducing the number of bars and primary drinking establishments to four. While it seems there’s enough interest in the property that a desolate Ctown won’t be an issue, the article raised a very good point about late-night activities that I think bears a little bit of thought:

For many Cornell students and alumni, the closure of another bar in Collegetown prompted concerns about late-night life at Cornell.

“What is happening to the bar scene in Collegetown?” said Cara Sprunk ’10, a former Sun writer.

Lee Moskowitz ‘13 said that Dino’s and Johnny O’s “probably held about 300 people each, so now you’ve got 600 people going to about four bars, instead of six, and those bars were already crowded to begin with.”

***

Lee Moskowitz has a very valid argument. Fewer bars would seem like a good thing on the surface (less noise and rowdiness), except that that isn’t going to deter the large percentage of older students who want to party it up in the evening. I can vouch from my own experience that even when there were six bars, it was not uncommon to wait in line outside to get in, because the bars were absolutely packed. Less bars means longer lines, and eventually people are going to give up and just do more house parties to compensate (especially considering the tighter restriction on the Greek system’s parties). I firmly believe that it’s a naive notion that student drinking would somehow decrease.

While there’s no problem with house parties per se, the issue lies with the fact that while bars and Greek houses have formal regulations that they’re expected to follow, house parties don’t. If the hosts and servers aren’t careful, that can go a couple of unfortunate ways – an IPD free-for-all for citations and fines, and/or a greater risk to partygoers.

With any hope, Cornell’s new pub in the Ivy Room will open as scheduled in the fall. But elsewise, late-night life at Cornell seems to be heading in a less regulated direction, and is going to be a much bigger issue.


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News Tidbits 7/15/11: Hotel Ithaca Finally Ready for Construction?

15 07 2011

Image property of visitithaca.com

Doing my usual perusing of the city planning board pre-agenda (the “project review committee”) turned up this piece of information slated for discussion:

Minor Subdivision Approval, Two‐Lot Subdivision Pertaining to City of Ithaca Tax Parcels 70.‐4‐4.2, 70.‐4‐4.3, and 70.‐4‐4.4 , Jeffrey Rimland, Applicant for Ithaca Properties, LLC. The applicant is proposing to create two lots. The applicant will subdivide the existing 60,095 SF parcel currently containing the Rothschild Building and vacant land fronting East Green Street (represented as Parcels A and B‐2 on the accompanying plat or Tax Map Parcels 70.‐4‐4.2 and 70.‐4‐4.4) into two separate parcels. Parcel A will measure 53, 805 SF and retain the footprint of the existing Rothschild Building. Parcel B‐2 will be combined with the 2,140 SF Parcel B‐1 on the plat or 70.‐4‐4.3 (formerly surplus city land which was conveyed to the applicant) to make a 8,430 SF parcel which will front E. Aurora and Green Streets and will contain the proposed new hotel.

***

On the surface, it’s nothing special, just a lot subdivision. But more importantly, it’s consolidating the lot to be used for the Hotel Ithaca, which has been on hold since gaining approvals due to an inability to land financing in the recession-ravaged bank loan market (the development cost is expected to be around $27 million). The consolidation of the property suggests to me that the project may finally have procured funding to begin development of the 10-story, 140-room hotel. Or at least, one can hope.

The other bright piece of news is that it looks like Seneca Way, the 5-story building proposed for the former Challenge Industries site on the eastern edge of downtown, has received all necessary zoning variances through mitigation (moving two apartments from the north to the south side of the building, moving the fitness center from the top floor to the bottom floor, moving and resizing of the roof terrace, and lastly, a deed restriction that prevents any other building over 40 feet from being built within 70 feet of the northern property line). The last mitigation tactic seems a bit controversial to me, but most of the zoning in that area has a 40-ft. maximum as it is. I suppose if someone ever wanted to redevelop the insurance building on the corner though, it would suck for them. But at least this project is moving forward. I imagine with this under construction and the Collegetown Terrace project up the road, East State Street is going to see a lot of construction traffic for the next two years.


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News Tidbits 6/28/11: The Lawsuit Everybody Expected

28 06 2011

So, the Cornell Sun (on its bare bones summer staff) has noted that the mother of George Desdunes ’13, the SAE brother who died in a hazing event this past February, is suing the national fraternity for $25 million. I’m no expert on legal matters, but I do know this has significant precedent with cases from other universities, and SAE has been slapped with three wrongful death lawsuits  in just the past five years. Most of the wrongful death cases were settled out of court for undisclosed amounts, although at least one, a case against a University of Texas chapter of SAE, was awarded $16.2 million (I’m not positive, but I believe it’s the fraternity’s insurance company that pays out, but the fraternity then finds it that much more difficult and expensive to have adequate coverage for their liabilities, which is necessary for recognition on many campuses. So although the fraternity doesn’t pay out directly, their finances still detrimentally impacted).

Now, here’s my question: is she bring a lawful death lawsuit against Cornell?

In a previous entry, I described how a similar incident had occurred at M.I.T. back in the late 1990s with the death of a pledge at their FIJI chapter. In that case, the Kreuger family held M.I.T. responsible for a lack of supervision of the fraternity that allowed the death to occur. Although a formal lawsuit against the school was never filed, MIT did pay out $6 million to the family, of which $1.25 million went to a memorial scholarship. In hazing-wrongful death lawsuits, it seems, at a casual glance, that while it’s common for the fraternities local chapters and national organizations to be sued, it unusual for the school to be sued, perhaps because its much more difficult to build a case. But, I would not hold out against the possibility that if the lawyers are zealous enough, they can use the lack of supervision against Cornell and receive a similar settlement.  For one thing, SAE lived in a university-owned property and the incident allegedly took place in the Townhouses on North Campus.

So, the obvious take-away from this news is that SAE is screwed and totally responsible for their members’ actions. But in the bigger picture, one does wonder if the plaintiffs are going to try and go after Cornell as well.


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News Tidbits 6/6/2011: Ithaca Is Getting Another Hotel

6 06 2011

…which depending on your stance, the addition could be a blessing or a curse. Planning board minutes from the last meeting indicate that a formal proposal is underway for a 4-story, $10-million dollar hotel to be built in Ithaca. If it was just that vague piece of news, everyone would smile, nod, and keep right on going.

However, some of the recalcitrant locals may find some issues with the project. For one, it’s a Fairfield Inn, which is a national chain (more specifically, it’s Marriott’s budget brand). The proposal is also slated for construction on Meadow Street (Elmira Road), which is as close as the city of Ithaca has to suburbia. The proposal is targeted for a parcel of land between Elmira and Spencer Roads next to Manos Diner, which I’ve taken the liberty of copying from google maps and pasting below:

The location puts it in fairly close proximity to the Hampton Inn built about eight years ago. Also, a four-story building here would be one of the tallest in this part of the city. The minutes indicate that one of the planning board members asked why it couldn’t be built taller, to which the reply was it would need to be a masonry building, i.e. much more expensive. The project would require the demolition of one house at the corner of the property. UPDATE: and according to the Ithaca Journal’s 7/26 edition the redevelopment will also tear down Manos Diner. The planning board has stated this is incorrect, Manos is adjacent to the hotel and will not be demolished.

Since the developer says this will be among the very first of a new generation of Fairfield Inns, it’s hard to guess what the building may look like, as it may be a new corporate design scheme. The developer has already secured funding and is anticipating an opening in late 2012 if the approvals are earned quickly.

So, on the plus side, it adds density and provides a modest shot in the arm to the economic health of the community. Plus, the extra hotel rooms wouldn’t hurt around graduation time.


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News Tidbits 5/6/2011: Some of Us Can’t Be At Slope Day

6 05 2011

Oh graduate finals. You take way the afternoon of one of the biggest social days of my year. Well, I’ve studied a fair amount, and since final #1 is at 3 PM, I figured I would take a brief break to tackle a few of the many news pieces to have been released lately, before they become really old news.

1. SAE’s pledge class joining TKE. Do I think this is wrong? On many levels, yes. Playing Devil’s Advocate here, I can see why they might’ve pursued this idea. It’s no great secret that TKE’s numbers have been declining recently, and the fresh blood of a sizable class adopted from a fraternity with a strong social reputation could definitely help in some respects. In a historical sense, there’s nothing particularly like it.  When Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Epsilon merged in the mid-1980s, even though both had houses at Cornell, there’s no indication the bortherhoods merged; it seems Phi Sigma Epsilon simply closed. There are some cases of entire fraternities merging, such as Zodiac and ATO in the 1930s. In all my fact-checking, I found only one case; pledges of Theta Chi, which was booted off Cornell’s campus in 1999, asked if they could join Alpha Epsilon Pi, and the offer was accepted. AEPi partially operated out of the Theta Chi house until 2001 (first they operated both their house at 140 Thurston and the house at 40 Ridgewood, then just Ridgewood), when it became too expensive and they reverted back to just their Thurston property.

On a related note, four of the former SAE pledges (not affiliated with the TKE group) were indicted on charges related to the death of George Desdunes ’13.

If I were an alum of TKE (which I’m not, thankfully) I’d be livid. It sets a horrible example, that even though the members of your pledge class had an indirect role in someone’s death, that you’re high enough on the social ladder that another house will come to your “rescue”. For all practical purposes, the size of this group, and their former association, will likely cause Tau Kappa Epsilon to become a hybridized version of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Arguably, that might help the house’s perceived social standing, and it provides some measure of stability, but at great expense to the house’s integrity, and it speaks volumes on how much the SAE group actually cared about their own fraternal association. It just seems ethically wrong to me.

2. Then again, being ethically wrong seems to be a running theme of the semester. I have to say, having an IFC officer mock MGLC’s step show will sexual gestures towards a large audience that included Ithaca high and middle school students, and then voting to not remove him until the associate dean “strongly advises” it and he tenders his own resignation…like really? Is the system trying to get dismantled, because honestly I can’t tell at this point.

3. last on the pieces of news to tackle, the fatal fire at 107 Cook Street. We all talk about how some of the houses in Collegetown are unsafe, but never would anyone want a tragic event such as this to happen. Argue about zoning and landlords and proper maintenance all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone has lost their life just as the semester was wrapping up. As an aside, I actually knew two guys from my major who lived in this exact apartment last year, and by their accounts it wasn’t in terrible shape. But right now, what matters is that someone is gone all too soon. As a final aside, the last fatal apartment fire was on Heights Court near North Campus back in May 2006. That house was renovated, and at last check, was up for sale.

P.S. I have a backlog of entries to write; once my schedule clears up, activity on this blog should pick up.


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We’re Not in Kansas…

28 04 2011

In my daily activity, I have to keep in mind two things – I study meteorology, and I can get all the sleep I want when I die. Yesterday was an interesting day, for reasons most folks have probably heard already. Apart from Mother Nature deciding that the Deep South had to be devastated, there was a tornado watch extended into upstate New York. A watch means that the possibility is there for a tornadic cell to develop. Well, when things finally began to be a little more settled last night,
I was working in my office, and my officemate turns to me and says,

“B—, Ithaca was just placed under a tornado warning. You might want to check it out.”

So I did. And over Schuyler County, here’s a cell with a plausible tornado signature (a hook) on radar. The cell was tracking northeast and Ithaca was directly in the warning path.

At that moment, I decided to  make a few phone calls. It ended up being a long night (as previously stated, I’ll get all the sleep I want someday), as three cells bore down on the area, one of which is showing in its prelim reports that a tornado likely touched down in Danby. From NWS BGM (Binghamton):

0540 1 NE DANBY TOMPKINS NY 4236 7647 POSSIBLE TORNADO … 4 TO 5 HOMES WITH MAJOR STRUCTURAL DAMAGE (BGM)

So, an unusual and rather scary night for the folks back in Tompkins County. Digging into some data, I decided to check the last time a tornado was confirmed within the county.

From the Tornado Project:

AUG 25, 1961    005   1800     0      0    F0    109
JUN 15, 1964    001   1530     0      0    F1    109
JUN 20, 1969    004   0745     0      0    F1    109
JUN 18, 1977    002   1500     0      0    F1    109
AUG 28, 1988    005   1342     0      0    F1    109
AUG 21, 1994    008   0715     0      0    F0    109

Although the project suggests otherwise, conflicting reports suggest a fatality with the August 28, 1988 tornado. That tornado, an F-1 (today we use EF-1, as the Fujita scale as been refined to become the “Enhanced Fujita” scale), may have killed one person. Further analysis suggests this tornado tracked from Schuyler County into Tompkins County, and the fatality was in Schuyler, which might explain the disparity.  I don’t know the ratio of warnings to confirmed touchdowns, but Brotzge et al. (2009) suggest only 1 in 4 warnings result in confirmed tornadoes. EDIT: Actually, that link won’t work for most people unless you have American Meteorological Society connections.

So, events like this are rare indeed. My only regret is that I should’ve saved the radar imau ge from last night. Actually, I have two regrets. My second is that I have a friend who photographed the King Ferry tornado a few years ago from Space Science, and he sent me a copy of the photo back in 2007, which I lost at some point. If I feel really proactive I might email him to ask for another copy.


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An Exercise in Mapping

24 04 2011

So, I figured that since I write about Cornell, IC and Ithaca-area construction projects as much as I do, it might be nice to include some form of a map. Depending on time and motivation, I might get around to putting ones together for South Hill and Downtown.

So, Cornell Campus, used here primarily as a test bed (click the image to expand its size).

Under Construction:

1 – Milstein Hall 2- Johnson Art Museum addition 3- Human Ecology Building 4- Stocking Hall Addition

Approved:

1- Wilson Lab / Synchotron Expansion (CU ERL Project)

Proposed:

1- Gates Hall

Stale Proposals (i.e. been around a while, little notable progress in the past several months-plus)

1- Goldwin Smith Hall Addition 2- Gannett Health Center Addition 3- Holley Center (Soil Lab) Expansion (most likely dead, given federal budget cuts).

Heading south into Collegetown –

Under Construction

1- Coal Yard Apartments Phase II – A 4-story, 25-unit building off of Maple Avenue.

Approved:

1 – 309 Eddy Street (5 stories, 41 units) 2- Vine Street Cottages (19 house, 10 townhomes) 3- Collegetown Terrace (several buildings, 2-6 stories, 589 units)

Proposed:

1- 307 College Avenue (5 stories, 60 units), Snaith House addition (12 bedrooms)

Mall, Airport and Vicinity –

Under Construction:

1- BJ’s wholesale Club (82,000 sq ft) and 12 senior living units 2- Heights of Lansing (~17/80 units complete).

Approved:

1- Millcroft Housing Development (~19 lots in phase II).

Proposed:

1- Lansing Reserve Project (65 units) 2-  NRP Group Project (80 units)

Stale Proposal

1- Behind the mall, a mix of additional shops and 40 apartments, in a lifestyle-center setup, were proposed about three years ago. The recession may have killed the project; at the very least, it’s been shelved.

***

This isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of other projects in the area, I just wanted to experiment with presenting local projects in a different, more visual format.


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