New Construction

Cornell Starts Construction on New Computer Science Building

• By Matt Jones
• 06/01/23

Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, recently began construction on a new facility for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science (Cornell Bowers CIS), according to a news release. The 135,000-square-foot building will play home to the departments of Computer Science, Information Science, and Statistics and Data Science, united within one complex for the first time. Local news reports that construction is scheduled for completion in 2025.

The new building will stand four stories and connect to the existing Bill & Melinda Gates Hall. The ground floor will feature central gathering spaces like a café, commons, interactive classroom, large builder labs, a maker space, and an outdoor courtyard, according to the news release. The three research floors will be divided into two wings containing research offices, computational labs, and collaborative space. Dean Kavita Bala said that the new facility will “expand opportunities for student research and experiential learning with new research initiatives that will position us for continued world leadership in tech.”

The university partnered with Leers Weinzapfel Associates for the building’s design. According to a 2022 university news story, the structure was designed with sustainability in mind and uses high-performance building materials and practices including carbon reduction, water conservation, energy use reduction, and an integrated landscape.

“Our goal is to create a place for both the dynamic exchange of ideas and for quiet, focused research,” said Andrea Leers, Principal-in-Charge.

“There’s a huge intellectual benefit from having the departments together as a coherent and collaborative whole,” said Bala in 2022. “The inspiration that results from working close together and serendipitously meeting each other is going to have a huge positive impact on seeing new kinds of ideas that cross disciplines and department boundaries.”