New Cornell Campus to Cultivate High-Tech Industry in New York City [Slide Show]

A collaboration with an Israeli University will incubate start-ups from an East River island with a colorful past

HOUSE ON MAIN STREET: The Blackwell House was built in the 1700s by the family who owned the island at the time. It is the the sixth oldest farmhouse in New York City but has not been occupied since 1955, according to Island historian Berdy... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier
TRAMWAY: Roosevelt Island is perhaps best known for its tramway, completed in 1976 to help ferry people to and from Manhattan's Upper East Side. Each tram cabin has a capacity of up to 110 people and makes about 115 trips per day... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier
RENWICK RUINS: The ruins of the smallpox hospital designed by architect James Renwick and built in 1856 have been designated as a historic landmark and cannot be razed, even though they remain upright with the help of a wood and metal support structure... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier and Wikimedia Commons
WESTVIEW: Students and faculty at NYC Tech will have a view of the United Nations headquarters across the East River, to the west of the new campus. The Empire State Building can be seen several buildings to the right of the U.N... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier
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A NEW KIND OF CAMPUS: An artistic rendering of the 18.6-hectare NYC Tech Campus to be built by Cornell University and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. Plans call for the campus to include a solar array that will generate 1.8 megawatts at daily peak and a 400-well geothermal field, which uses the constant temperature of the earth to cool buildings in the summer and heat them in the winter... Courtesy of Cornell University
THEN AND NOW: The large balconies on the eastern side of Goldwater's buildings used to offer staff and patients some relief from the summer heat. (The buildings were not air-conditioned.) Access has since been restricted due to safety concerns as the buildings have aged, according to Island historian Berdy... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier and Roosevelt Island Historical Society Archives
EAST RIVER ISLAND: Roosevelt Island has had many names over the past few centuries—including Minnahanonck (a Native American phrase meaning "nice island"), Hogs Island, Blackwell's Island and Welfare Island... Courtesy of Roosevelt Island Historical Society Archives
REVIVAL: Directly to the south of the proposed NYC Tech Campus, renovations are underway to restore landmark buildings. One such building is Strecker Memorial Laboratory, which was built in 1892 as the first U.S... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier and Wikimedia Commons
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WELFARE ISLAND LAB: In its early days Goldwater maintained a 100-bed research unit where Columbia University and New York University physicians studied the effects of malaria, cold weather, starvation, arthritis, liver disease and other conditions on volunteers, according to Judith Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society and an island resident since 1977... Courtesy of Larry Greeneeier
AERIAL VIEW: Goldwater Hospital covers four hectares, with seven connected buildings, shaped like chevrons to provide a better view of the East River on either side of the 240-meter wide island. This view of Goldwater was taken from the Roosevelt Island Tramway, a car suspended from an overhead cable that ferries passengers between the island and Manhattan's Upper East Side... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier and Roosevelt Island Historical Society Archives
AN ENDING, A BEGINNING: Cornell and Technion plan to build their 18.6-hectare NYC Tech Campus on the site of Roosevelt Island's Goldwater Memorial Hospital, established in 1939 as a long-term care facility... Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier

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