Attendees:
Andrew Winters, Cornell Tech
Stephen Noone, Cornell Tech
Jane Swanson, Cornell Tech
John Di Capua, Tishman Construction
Tolu Onafowokan, Berlin Rosen
Pete Krokondelas, Kasirer Consulting
Task Force Members
Yoni Bokser (for Anne Marie Boranian)
Christine Delfico
Shelby Garner
Matthew Katz
Judy Buck
Cali Madia
Larry Parnes
Jesus Perez
Sushant Harite
Members of the Public
Joyce Short
Charles Arrigo (Verizon)
Rick O’Conor
Judy Berdy
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Milestones
Barging: plans are underway for a “roll-on/roll-off system for barging construction materials: a
landing barge and bridge will be installed just east of the Cornell Tech site and another will be
installed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; trucks carrying certain materials (steel, façade panels, certain
large equipment) will drive onto a traveling barge in Brooklyn; trucks will arrive at Cornell Tech and
drive off the barge onto the construction site; the east roadway at Cornell Tech will be closed for the
duration of the barging operation; installation of the landing barge is expected in late August; the
system will start operating in September;
Roadway and Utility work is underway; North Road work should be completed by the end of August and
the road will be re-opened to the public shortly thereafter; work on the northern section of the West Road is
scheduled for August through October of 2015 and the southern section from December to February; work
on the southern section of the East Road will take place from October to December; the northern section is
currently being worked on with a scheduled completion date in August; South Road work is scheduled from
February to May of 2016;
A tree at the southwest corner of the site was damaged in a storm; this was one of the trees that Cornell
Tech, consultation with the task force, had determined could remain during construction; however; the
storm damage was severe and the tree had to be removed;
Project schedule: foundation work is underway on all three buildings (Residential, Bloomberg Center
and the Co-location building); all three buildings to be opened the summer of 2017;
Cornell Tech has determined that the type of assistive listening system that will be used on campus is an
IR (Infrared) Technology rather than induction loop technology because of the following advantages:
allows for usage in adjacent rooms without interference – which is critical as the Bloomberg Center has
6 adjacent classrooms with several movable walls; it allows for multiple direct inputs – facilitating
distance learning, multiple and/or remote presenters, translation and multiple media sources; it is
consistent with Cornell technology at the Ithaca campus; and it is most commonly used technology in a
university environment;
Cornell Tech’s residential building with be the first high-rise residential passive house in the world with a
60-70 percent reduction in energy use compared to a conventional building;
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Community Involvement: Cornell Tech has been active in the Roosevelt Island community over the past
3 months. The current exhibition at Gallery RIVAA is the work of Cornell alum, Peter Gerakaris, and it
was installed to commemorate Cornell Tech’s groundbreaking; our relationship with the gallery has
been a tremendous it is a struggling nonprofit gallery and so we want to promote it in any way we can
and we were certainly successful with this exhibit; the exposure that the gallery received was
widespread – Cornell Tech promoted the exhibition far and wide on social media and in press releases,
it was featured prominently in remarks at the groundbreaking and the artist also promoted it on their
various media platforms; many non-residents who have connections in the wider NYC art world
attended the opening reception – and for many attendees it was their first trip to RI; The exhibit was
featured in an article in Architectural Digest and Gallery RIVAA is referenced;
The seminars that CT sponsors along with Weill Cornell Med College and the RIWHO continue to fill the
room; it was standing room only for May’s stroke awareness seminar and June’s sleep apnea seminar;
A summer middle school camp called Coding off the Grid is running for two weeks at the PS/IS 217
Beacon Program. The curriculum, which combines natural science and computer science, has been
developed by the American Museum of Natural History. The students will visit the museum twice during
their two week session, on the second and final day of the program. Students will collect and compute
data on birds in the urban environment, including the open space around the school and in Central
Park. At the beginning of August, all students and their families will be invited to Cornell Tech for an
event explaining the DOE high school choice process and introducing them to NYC schools that offer
computer science classes. Students will be asked to complete a pre- and post-program survey to
determine whether their interest in computer science changes through this exposure. The schools have
agreed to provide us with anonymous data about participants’ high school applications to determine
whether any schools we’ve introduced were included in their lists.
Cornell Tech has had discussions with Roosevelt Islanders and Cornell Tech faculty about how
technology can improve the lives of the disabled; some Cornell Tech students have developed a device
to help people with quadriplegia called Pallette, a tongue-controlled wireless device that sits on the roof
of a person’s mouth. By connecting to any device with Bluetooth technology through the mobile app
that has been developed, the person will be able to easily select what they want to control and how they
want to control it. This technology is a long way from development but it is an exciting development;
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Discussion:
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A task force member asked if anyone knew the status of the Verizon outages; a representative
from Verizon was at the task force meeting and gave an update: 200 residents were out of
service, which was starting to come back up; to date, Verizon is migrating 51 business and 30
residential lines to FIOS;
A task force member asked much concrete would be used in constructing the buildings; the
answer was yes;
Questions were asked about the mapping of utilities; Cornell Tech responded that this was a
problem in terms of replacing utilities such as sewer, water, Verizon, and Con Edison because the
mapping on Roosevelt Island is not standard city mapping;
Someone asked if there would be Saturday deliveries of concrete; the answer was yes;
A task force member asked about barging cement trucks; Cornell Tech responded that cement
trucks cannot be barged because of the short time frame required for delivery and pouring of
concrete;
A task force member questioned the IR type of assistive listening technology to be used in the
Bloomberg Center, preferring looping; (see description of IR above);
A task force member asked about bus routes; Cornell Tech responded that buses could use the
North Road in August or September;
A task force member asked about coordinating with the MTA, RIOC and others on improvements
to the F train station; Cornell Tech responded that indeed, this is something that we plan to do;
A member of the public asked if Cornell Tech would do more than 40 percent barging and Cornell
Tech responded that they like to do more
A task force member asked if bringing the sidewalk inside the Cornell Tech property line rather
than along the street was still the plan in regards to saving the trees on the SW corner of the site;
Cornell Tech responded yes, it is still the plan;
A task force member asked if there was any update on the Helix construction work; Cornell Tech
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responded that they would check;
A task force member asked if the Helix was adequate to carry the heavy construction trucks; Cornell
Tech responded that the trucks are under the 36 ton limit;
Presentations:
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Andrew Winters, Director of Capital Projects, Cornell Tech, gave an update on construction, barging,
trees at the SW corner of the Cornell Tech site, passive house, and assisted listening;
Jane Swanson, Asst. Director of Government and Community Relations, Cornell Tech, reported on
community engagements over the last few months.