People strolling around New York City’s Flatiron District these days can look up and see the new second-story loft of Cornell’s College of Art, Architecture and Planning (AAP).
The 5,500 square foot space, located at 50 W. 17th St., will not be fully operational until the fall, yet this spring and summer a number of students will already be making use of the facility as AAP officials search for an on-site administrator.
“We’re fully expecting to have students there for the entire fall 2006 semester,” said one member of the AAP Dean’s Committee.
Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of AAP, hopes to see students spending anywhere from a week to a semester in the loft, which features a large lecture area, a seminar room and administrative offices. Predicted uses of the loft include establishing a base of interaction with Cornell alumni, hosting guest speakers and social events, working on studio projects and integrating the college’s main fields of study with related areas such as design media, community development, computer science and structural engineering.
A statement by the Dean’s Committee credited the project largely to the dean’s vision: “Mostafavi, who came to Cornell in July 2004, has made the NYC program a high priority for AAP.