The ground floor is a lively and engaging destination. A student “ramble” along the greenspace edge provides places for individual and small group study, while the café, Commons, large classrooms, and large builder labs encourage collaboration. With its generous ceiling height and canopy of wood slats, the ground floor spaces are dynamic, warm, and welcoming. 

The upper floors are dedicated to quiet research with offices and small computational labs. Conceived as a “skinny” building to avoid interior offices and labs, the workspaces all have generous daylight. Cross Laminated Timber ceilings in labs and offices bring warmth and floor identity to these essential spaces. The two research wings of the building are joined by a suite of collaborative spaces on each floor where a continuous wall plane in vivid Yves Klein Blue and CLT wood ceilings lend dynamism, comfort, and delight to the off-screen moments of the researchers’ day. 

The integrated sustainability systems convey Cornell’s commitment to environmental stewardship, energy conservation, and healthy environments. Multiple strategies include framing upper floors in steel with Cross Laminated Timber floor and roof slabs for carbon reduction (the first CLT use at Cornell), narrow building configuration for maximum daylight to all occupied spaces, high performance building envelope, chilled beams and radiant panels for energy conservation, and bioswales for stormwater management.

“The vision of bringing together the computing, data science and information science disciplines in one complex seemed distant five years ago.” said Kavita Bala, Provost Cornell University and former Dean of Cornell Bowers. “This building makes it a reality and we are already seeing rich new intellectual collaborations developing… our faculty, students and staff love being in this space.”