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Message from the University Architect

During 2008, Planning and Project Development continued its evolution as an integrated service provider that provides leadership in maintaining and improving the order, beauty and functionality of the Cornell Ithaca Campus.   This mission is vital to ensure that Cornell remains competitive in attracting the best students, faculty and staff.

Clearly, one of the more monumental achievements of the office was the approval of the Campus Master Plan earlier this year by the Board of Trustees. This was done under the leadership of the University Planner.   The next step will be to participate in its implementation so that future development is based on the vision and order of this historic document. 

The office provided design and planning leadership on a dozen major projects in varying stages of design during the second quarter of 2008.   The represents one of the highest levels of real property capital development in recent history.  Concurrently, the office has been developing processes to better structure the project development process for future projects.

While the objective of the Office of Planning and Project Development is to fully integrate planning and design activities, the office’s activities are broadly structured under four basic efforts; architectural review, planning, landscape, and the development and maintenance of the University’s digital map.  It is important to note that each of the below catagories often include collaboration between the different parts of the office, as is fully intended under the design of this office.

  1. Planning Activities
    1. Completed the Campus Master Plan, and its adoption by the Board of Trustees on March 6, 2008 and June 12, 2008 respectively.  Developing the Implementation section of the CMP continues with a target of early Fall for completion and presentation to the Trustees.  The primary goals of Implementation are a process to ensure integrated planning between academic, capital and physical planning and strengthening the planning function at the University to ensure that the CMP is followed and kept current with the University’s academic needs.
    2. Newly initiated Planning Projects:
      • Comprehensive Facilities Master Plan for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
      • Assisting the College Veternarian Medicne (CVM) with scoping their college master plan. 
      • Relocation of the CVM teaching Dairy Barn, which will share space and resources in the future with the CALS livestock pavilion and the Animal Sciences teaching barns in the medium to long term as a Large Animal Teaching Complex (LATC). 
    3. Initiated a Gorge Assessment and Management Plan project with pilot section of Fall Creek Gorge.  The goal is to have a consistent management planning approach for all the University’s gorge and stream corridor resources.
    4. Participating actively in the joint campus-community planning efforts, including those on the Cornell Community initiatives for housing and transportation, the planning for Collegetown and possible University projects Downtown, among others.
    5. Participating in the completion of the work on the t-GEIS and the TIMS - a joint planning initiative with the Town of Ithaca - to develop what will be the University's strategic transportation plan for the next 10 years.  The t-GEIS is approved for public review.
    6. Scoping and oversight of master planning efforts for the development of the East Hill Data Center.
  2. Mapping:
    1. Continued progress on translating the GIS software to a user-friendly web interface for a broad array of potential applications, being developed in partnership with CIT and the Office of Web Communications and the Director of Administrative and Campus Services.
    2. Consolidating all campus mapping to reside within the Campus Planning Office to ensure the quality and consistency of campus maps is mostly complete
    3. Update and re-installation of the “You Are Here” maps for the campus in partnership with the Transportation Office, and the Office of Campus Information and Visitor Relations is under development.
    4. As part of a project for Cornell Real Estate, we have mapped the stewardship of parcels for the main and extended campus.   This effort will be continued into Core Campus as a follow up effort, resulting in a definitive, accurate, well-organized source of parcel and stewardship information for CU properties.
    5. A pilot project has been initiated to develop  GIS space utilization map for the College of Veternarioan Medicine.   This pilot could become the standard for modeling campus wide space usage.
  3. Landscape
    1. Developed principles and guidelines for campus road naming, consistent with the CMP precincts and themes as well as the needs for emergency response on campus. Continue prioritizing campus landscape projects for potential improvements and donor opportunities, as well as for inclusion in a potential University projects list.
    2. The ILR courtyard landscape is in design and a new project to redesign the Ag Quad is being initiated.
    3. Landscape Specifications for the CU Standards have been rewritten. Strengthened partnership with the Development Office to work with potential donors interested in enhancing the campus landscape.
    4. Continuing the conversation on naturalizing the campus landscape and related projects that will include partnership with Utilities, Grounds, Plantations, PDC, Campus Life and others.  Outcomes are expected to be a campus-wide stormwater management strategy, a tree inventory and identified pilot projects for naturalization of campus landscapes – one of which has been already established at the Hans Bethe House on West Campus.
  4. Architecture
    1. Supporting key Capital Projects through continued participation in the concept and schematic design phases of the following Projects:
      • University Health Services Facility
      • Food Sciences building
      • Humanities Building
      • East Hill Data Center
      • Cornell Rowing Center and Boathouse
      • Engineering Building
      • Plantation Welcome Center
      • Computer Information Services Building
      • Fernow and Rice Renovation
      • Stocking Hall Renovation and Annex
      • Law School Master Plan
    2. Presented and obtained approval for the concept or design for the following projects to the Buildings & Properties Committee:
      • Health Services
      • Humanities
      • Stocking Hall Food Sciences
      • College of Engineering
      • East Hill Data Center
      • Phillips Hall Addition
      • Cornell Rowing Center
      • Computer Information Systems Building
      • Central Avenue Parking Garage
      • Plantations Welcome Center
      • Statler Hotel Tower
      • Lake Erie Vineyard Research and Extension Lab
    3. The office has worked with several project managers and Cornell’s contract division to revise a standard A/E scope of services that institutes a more structured approach to building design with well defined deliverables that test the validity of early design explorations quantitatively and qualitatively.    This order was necessary, considering the amount of work that is currently being developed by the University.
    4. The office is collaborating with Project Design and Construction (PDC) and others to develop a classification system for Cornell’s historic properties that will facilitate the proper planning, budgeting, and execution of needed renovation work to these valuable cultural assets.