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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The Keyword Bar XIII

13 09 2011

I feel a little guilty when I write “Keyword Bar” entries. I feel like they’re a melange of two separate thoughts – “Cornell and Ithaca aren’t doing anything I’m interested enough in to write about” and “I’m too lazy/busy with other things to research Cornell-related topics today”. So I depend on people prowling the internet and coming across the page in order to find topics worthy of writing brief snippets.

Regarding the opening photo; that photo comes from this past graduation weekend. I’m not sure if it’s the same person who put up the angry sign a couple years ago about how someone stole the peaches off their tree and as a result she couldn’t make peach pies to give to her sad elderly friends, but there’s a good chance it’s the same person (the sign did a good job of making me feel like a d—–bag and I didn’t even know there was a peach tree on the property). Anyway…

1. “new apartment building 309 eddy street ithaca cornell” 9-13-2011

I’m going to assume this is under construction? I’m going to go down there and take photos, come hell or high water.

2. “rothschilds building ithaca history” 9-12-2011

So, the Rothschild Building is also recognizable as the old Tetra Tech building on the east end of Ithaca Commons. Surprisingly, I have virtually no photos of it except for this one, where I’ve circled it in red:

The building was finished in 1975 (i.e. finished right after the Commons opened) and underwent a renovation in 1993, when Tetra Tech bought the previous occupant out (The Thomas Group) in a corporate takeover. It was built on the site of the old Hotel Ithaca, which had been torn down nine years earlier in the name of urban renewal.  The main occupant (Tetra Tech) moved out to the tech park last year because according to them, the space was too old and inefficient. The 76,000 sq ft. is slated for conversion into residential units.

3. “first snowfall in ithaca usually” 9-8-2011

Depends on your definition of “first snowfall”. Only twice in the past 20 years has there been an inch of snow before November 1st in Ithaca – 1993 and 2009 (October 31st and October 16th respectively). The 2009 snow is the earliest 1″ snowfall on the 120-year  record (however, November 2009 was 3 degrees above average and failed to record even a trace of snow). November usually averages 5.9″ of snow, but in the past decade there have only been four years with 1″ snows (November 18 & 21, 2008, November 9 2004, November 16, 27, 28 2002, November 23 and 30 2000)., and only 2 (2008 and 2002) that received above-average November snowfalls. But, in all except two years, there was at least a trace of snow in November. A quick anecdote, I think in the meteorology major, we said that the first 1″ day on average was November 18th, but if this blurb proves anything, it’s that it varies widely from year to year.

4. “edgemoor lane murder ithaca” 9-6-2011

None that I’ve ever heard of. Edgemoor Lane has almost exclusively been the home of professors, then fraternities and small dorms, since it was built in the 19th century, so a murder likely would’ve attracted Cornell’s attention, but nothing turns up online.

5. “why is cornell considered the heathens on the hill” 9-9-2011

Cornell was founded as a non-sectarian school, a radical departure from the norm in the mid 1800s. Many preachers and men of the cloth attacked the schools for its seemingly amoral standards, for instance not mandating church attendance. Heathens on the hill arose as a pejorative term that took on a more endearing, self-deprecating tone as non-sectarian schools became more common in the following decades.


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Flooding in Ithaca: Because Blizzards Aren’t Bad Enough

4 09 2011

This kinda ties into the last entry, which discussed the historical context of hurricanes (a.k.a. tropical cyclones if you follow the research literature) in the Ithaca area. Irene, while it had devastating impacts in some towns in the Capital Region and the Catskills, left Tompkins County with 1-2 inches or rain, hardly more notable than a particularly rainy summer day. I went down to southern Connecticut to enjoy being exfoliated by high winds on a beach, and a decent though not amazing storm surge. Then I came back to my Albany home to find roof damage, and a 60-foot ash tree that crashed down in front of the duplex across the street and on top of a Honda Civic. I’ve had better weeks, meteorologically speaking.

As I mentioned previously, the two worst floods in Ithaca occurred quite a long time ago – in 1857 and 1935. However, this is not to say that Ithaca hasn’t been flooded in modern times. The flood control channel down by Cass Park is there for a reason. Also, here’s a youtube video that starts with the flooded intersection of Mitchell and Pine Tree next to East Hill Plaza from way back in December 2010.

But comparatively, that’s small potatoes to some of the floods Ithaca has seen. The 1857 flood was massive. It also hails from a much different time in Ithaca’s history, before the colleges, and when the town itself had a few thousand people. Although sources are severely lacking, the downtown area was underwater for several weeks. This was before the era of effective flood control, and since downtown Ithaca is basically surrounded by steep hills on three sides and a lake on the fourth, the drainage system is about as far from optimal as you can get. Add to that some relatively impervious soil, and it becomes a big soggy problem.

Flooding is not unlikely with the spring thaw, or rapidly evolving early winter storm systems that start off with a warm moist tongue of air, dumping heavy rains before the area freezes over (certifiable proof that Mother Nature hates us all). But the two worst floods are summer events – June 1857 and July 1935, respectively.

The flood of June 17, 1857 seems to be the result of a highly localized warm-season precip event directly on the Six Mile Creek watershed (the creek just south of the Commons), which gives me the impression of a wet microburst or a cloudburst type of event. Both tend to be local and related to intense thunderstorm activity (and here’s a fun thought for when you go to sleep – they are notoriously difficult to forecast, and microbursts are one of the biggest reasons planes won’t land near thunderstorms). Anyway, the raging torrent washed out two dams, whose debris then slammed into the Aurora St. bridge, collapsing its stone arches and sending the whole shebang surging through the town. Hell, you can quote Dear Old Ezra on that one.

Some measures were taken to improve flood control, including more or bigger dams (like the one on Beebe Lake in 1898), and these were damaged by further floods, including events in 1901 and 1905. But nothing quite prepared the ares for the disaster that was the July 1935 flood.

The July 8, 1935 flood, from the descriptions I can find, seem to indicate an intense and prolonged mesoscale convective system (big effin thunderstorm complex), or something of similar intensity, with tropical moisture but nothing TC-based.  At the very least, it was definitely associated with thunderstorms on the evening of July 7th, in an area spanning from Hornell to Binghamton.

The 24-hr. rainfall total of 7.9 inches in Ithaca (the weather station was on the Ag Quad) is impressive. The local creeks almost immediately began to flood, and as drainage brought more water through the streams, they began to tear away at their banks, and flood Cayuga Lake downstream. The damage went throughout the county, from homes washed away in Enfield to cottages being washed from the lakeshore up by Trumansburg. A passenger train was stranded, and all the train tracks in the county were washed out or impassable due to debris. Most state parks in the area were badly damaged and downtown was once again flooded. Eleven people lost their lives in Tompkins County as a result of the flood (with 52 being lost in total, and $26 million in damage [1936 dollars, equivalent to $409 million today]). The damage to Ithaca was about $1.8 million in 1936 dollars, or $28 million in 2009 dollars.

As for the university, being on higher ground protected it from the wrath of the waters. Barton Hall was used as an emergency shelter for almost seven hundred people. The damage to campus was estimated at $10,000-$12,000 (1936 dollars, about $250,000 today), mostly due to the hydroelectric plant being flooded and some trail and bridge damage.

So, maybe it’s not on a Biblical scale, but there’s something to be said about living on higher ground and away from creek banks in the Ithaca area. Or you can just look at the Beebe Lake Dam after a good rainstorm to get a faint idea of how much worse it could be.


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The Hurricane That Flooded Ithaca

25 08 2011

Hurricane Agnes (1972). Image property of NOAA.

Ithaca weather is generally known for cool-season events (blizzards, ice storms and the like). I figured that with the current panic attack starting to set in on the East Coast regarding the impending arrival of Hurricane Irene, this entry is rather timely. Plus, most of my department is having a collective weather-gasm that makes doing work next to impossible (quoting one faculty member, “The Weather Channel has entered [for a disaster-addicted public] total ass-kissing mode”).

Anyways, Ithaca had actually seen some tropical-born activity over the years. I phrase it that way because typically, the storm has weakened into a remnant low or turned extratropical (i.e. becomes more like your standard cold-core mid-latitude low-pressure storm system) by the time the cyclone has passed into and over the region. Hurricane Hazel in 1954, for instance, passed over as an extratropical system with winds still at hurricane strength, but because the Allegheny Mountains wrung out most of the moisture from the east side of the storm, the region was mostly spared (Toronto was not so lucky). Wikipedia identifies 84 tropical cyclones that have impacted the state of New York, and as you might imagine, the majority of these have affected New York City and Long Island.

Reasonably, when a storm transitions to an extratropical state, it doesn’t just stop raining. Occasionally, if the conditions are favorable (i.e. moist environment and perhaps some topographical effects coming into play), the rain can be heavy and prolonged, resulting in flooding. This is exactly what happened with Hurricane Agnes.

Hurricane Agnes was the first named storm of the 1972 hurricane season. As a tropical cyclone, Agnes wasn’t particularly special; about the most unusual thing was that it was a June hurricane, a bit early in the year since the first hurricane isn’t usually until early August. Agnes formed off the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and moved directly north through the gulf, strengthening into a Category 1 storm with sustained 1-minute winds of 85 mph. The TC (tropical cyclone) made landfall over the Florida Panhandle, moved northeast into Georgia while weakening into a tropical depression, and then passed over the Atlantic and redeveloped into a tropical storm before swinging back west and making a second landfall near New York City with 70 mph winds. Agnes merged with a non-tropical low on the 23rd, and this system impacted the region until it finally moved out late on the 25th.

This was a very dangerous combination. The combined system had large amounts of tropical moisture from Agnes, and was slow moving thanks to the non-tropical low. Therefore, rains of 6-12″ occurred over 2 days, with the highest recording at 19″. In perspective, imagine getting three months of your region’s normal rainfall in two days. The resulting flooding for Pennsylvania and New York was disastrous. In Pennsylvania, 50 lives were lost and $2 billion in damage (1972 dollars) was incurred. The governor had to flee his flooding mansion and downtown Wilkes-Barre was under nine feet of water.

As for New York, the hardest-hit areas were a swath from Olean east to Elmira and Corning. In Elmira, the raging Chemung River destroyed or badly damaged most of the downtown area. One of Elmira’s big industries was railroads and railcars, but the railways were washed out by the storm and the bill for repairs was so high that the railroad companies opted for bankruptcy instead. In my own experience, talking with the older Elmira locals, they say the city never quite recovered from the “Flood of ’72”. In Ithaca, where the rainfall came out to about 7 inches, several bridges in the city and in nearby Brooktondale were washed out and the low-lying areas near several of the local streams were flooded. The lake level also rose enough to flood and damage the facilities at Stewart Park. Thankfully, Cornell and IC were out for the summer, and neither sustained major damage.

Image property of TompkinsREADY

The final toll in New York was 24 deaths and $700 million in damage (1972 dollars). Keep in mind, Ithaca has had worse floods, in 1857 and 1935. But neither one of those had tropical influence.

So, Ithaca is far from the action of the tropics, but not necessarily immune to the passage of tropical cyclones. As for Irene, Ithaca will be on the edge of the circulation at worst, it’s simply too far to the west and under the “protection” of a short-wave trough. But if I were at Weill Cornell, I would be very concerned right now.


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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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Ithaca is Hot

21 07 2011

According to NWS Binghamton, the high temperature in Ithaca tomorrow is expected to be right around 99 degrees Fahrenheit (~37.2 C). Earlier model outputs suggested a high right around 102 F. Regardless, the heat index (an indication of how it actually feels, thanks to the effects of high humidity) will be right around 110. It’s not often that Ithaca flirts with the century mark when it comes to temperatures (since most students know Ithaca as a frigid windswept land, any heatwave of this magnitude should be nothing short of shocking).

Being curious, I decided to glance at the NRCC climate records to determine the last time Ithaca hit 100 degrees (non-heat index). Well, a cursory check of the last twenty years turned up squat. So, I expanded the search, and pulled all days from 1900 onward that had temperatures recorded at 100 degrees or greater at the Ithaca station. Here’s the result:

07/03/1911 101

07/04/1911 102

07/05/1911 100

08/22/1916 101

07/02/1931 102

09/12/1931 100

06/29/1933 102

07/08/1936 101

07/09/1936 103

07/10/1936 102

An almighty ten occurrences in 110 years of records. The last of which was over 75 years ago.

Expanding the threshold a little bit, I checked out the dates where the temperature reached 95 F or higher. There were 129 occurrences in 110 years, a little more than one a year (but, since heat waves tend to be longer-term events, they typically occur in spurts of a few days at a time). the last day above 95 was August 15th, 2002, when the temperature hit 96 at the Ithaca Game Farm weather station. Looking more closely, the dates break down fairly clearly – once in 2002, once in 2001, twice in 1995, once in 1990, once in 1988 (a grand 98 degrees, the highest in the past 50 years), once in 1966, twice in 1965, and a record 5 times in 1955 (the highest of which was 98). So in the past 50 years, Ithaca has broken 95 degrees only 9 times.

So, it will be a hot day, maybe even one for the record books. I’m sweating in my AC-lacking apartment as I write this a few hours east of Ithaca, and I will be very glad when a cold front moves through later this week.


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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 6/6/2011: 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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An Exercise in Mapping, Part II

15 05 2011

Under Construction: The once-vacant Plantations Building on Ithaca Commons is being renovated into 8 apartments, a small amount of office space, and a large restaurant on the first floor of the 5-story building. The project is funded partially by community grant money and will be complete in about a month.

Approved: The 6-story, 52-unit apartment building proposed by INHS (1), the 7-story, 45-unit Cayuga Place condos (2), and the 10-story, 140-room Hotel Ithaca (3) are attempting to find financing in what is still a tight market for construction loans. The INHS building is dependent on state grant money that was not granted last year, and they are hoping to obtain financing in the next round of grants. The Cayuga Place condos has been looking for more unit sales and securing bank financing for almost four years at this point, and it might be time to move that to a stale proposal.

Proposed: The 6-story Challenge Industries redevelopment proposal, which has some office space and 32 units of housing. The project is currently trying to win over the neighbors and councils for zoning variances and approval down the line.

Stale/Dead: McGraw House, a senior living facility, was looking into a 25-50 unit expansion, and held several meetings to discuss proposals on the table, but this has all been tabled until a future time.

Examining the Ithaca College Area:

Note that I don’t use Bing Maps because I like them more, but because they are more up-to-date. For example, IC’s virtually complete Athletics Center is clearly visible on this aerial image.

Under Construction are Ithaca’s College’s Circle Apartments expansion (in the site prep stage; four current buildings (132 units) will be demo’d and nine more (280 units) will be added to the complex) and a 22-unit addition of senior housing (patio homes) to Longview.

Approved are the College Crossings retail center and INHS’s Holly Creek townhomes (11 units in first phase, I think 22 total). Off the map to the south and southwest are a couple of housing developments, Southwoods and Cleveland Estates, which are being developed lot-by-lot.

The proposed facility is the long-term expansion plans for the South Hill Business Campus, which would add 197,000 sq ft in three new buildings 3-4 stories in height. The campus currently has about 288,000 sq ft, of which about 84% is leased.

The stale proposal is an apartment building off of Bella Vista Drive that has been trying to market its units for the better part of five years. I am doubtful it will ever launch construction at this point.


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Taking Care of Cornell’s Students’ Bodies

10 05 2011

After I wrote about the medical college, I felt inspired to write up a brief piece regarding the history of student health at Cornell. Understandably, the value of this entry to the practical person looking up health information is nil, but then, I would hope that if someone has health issues, they would be looking through health websites like Gannett’s instead of blogs.

Anyways, most Cornell students know that if they feel sick, or think they might be pregnant, or some combo thereof, that a trip to Gannett Health Center is in order. Back in Cornell nascent days, if you were sick, well…you were pretty much screwed. A student at Cornell a few years after its founding, if they were to become ill, could hope to be taken care of by their friends, roommates or professors, if they were lucky and had strong connections. Otherwise, you were S.O.L. If it was any consolation, so were all residents of the city of Ithaca, which wouldn’t get it’s first hospital for a few more years (the first hospital opened on Aurora Street sometime during the 1870s, and the second hospital was built off of Quarry Street in Lower Collegetown in 1910; that complex still stands today as the Quarry Arms apartments, which Collegetown Terrace will be built around). In 1870, the faculty senate voted to set aside rooms on campus for sick students (Bishop 176), and the first medical examiner, a sort of campus physician, was appointed in June 1877 (he held two job titles, the other being an assistant professor of mathematics). Jennie McGraw of Cornell Chimes fame put a bequest in her will of $15,000 for the construction of a student hospital on the grounds of Cornell, and this was increased to $40,000 before her death in 1891. However, thanks to the Great Will Case, Cornell never saw any of her money used towards a health facility.

The first building dedicated solely to student health was the Cornell Infirmary, which still stands as the Schuyler House dorm to the far southwest of main campus. The Sage Complex  initially consisted of only the east building, which was essentially a converted mansion built in 1880 as Henry Sage’s retirement home after he moved from Brooklyn to Ithaca (Bishop 211).  Upon his death in 1897, he asked that the building and land be donated to Cornell, which his sons Dean and William did with an additional $100,000 donation for maintenance (Bishop 333). They might not have done that if Sage had outlived his nemesis and fellow generous benefactor Willard Fiske. Both sons were furious that Fiske was interred in Sage Chapel in 1904 and abruptly stopped all involvement and donations to the university. William Sage actually had donated a building to Yale some years later. But, I digress. The original Cornell Infirmary had room for twenty patients, and the large addition on the west side was completed in 1912. What you received was bed, board, and modest nursing care and lab services. While a student of yesteryear might receive advice on hygiene or bad habits, actual diagnosis by physicians was a role the university refused to take on until around 1940. It was felt that the university should not be responsible for the clinical care of its students, only lend a hand in their treatment. Medical advising by Cornell staff was generally discouraged.

By the 1950s, it was felt that the Infirmary was inadequate, poorly located and outdated, so a new building was constructed on land that used to hold two faculty residences. This building was named for media mogul Frank Gannett 1898, who generously funded its construction. The Gannett Health Clinic opened its doors in 1955 and received an expansion to its west side in 1979, bringing it to 39,000 sq ft. The masterplan suggests a 90,000-130,000 sq ft structure to replace the current building on the current site sometime during the next several years.

I’m marginally jealous that Cornell’s health center is on campus. The one at my grad school is located a half mile away across a four-lane highway. What a nice way some colleges provide for their students.


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