Cornell Central Campus

With the exception of Cascadilla Hall, no buildings were on the site so the campus evolved based on the hilly terrain and the conflicting visions of its designers, starting with Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White.

The Arts Quad reflects Cornell and White's decision to use a quadrangle model for organizing academic buildings around formal open spaces.

The quadrangle started with the "stone row" along the ridge of Libe Slope—Morrill (1866) and White (1867) Halls (both by Buffalo architects Wilcox and Porter), and McGraw (1869).

Originally, the Arts Quadrangle was proposed to be a square extending to the east to the site of Baker Laboratory and Rockefeller Hall.

Miller's Stimson Hall (1902),[5] and the Sibley Dome (1902), by Arthur N. Gibb (who also graduated from the Cornell architecture school), reflect Neoclassical themes.

Cornell shifted to outside architects, the nationally prominent firm of Carrère and Hastings, to design Goldwin Smith Hall (1904) and the adjacent Sheldon Memorial Exedra and Sundial (installed 1910), also in a Neoclassical style.

Goldwin Smith Hall began as a modest building with an east–west orientation, but the 1904 expansion to its south converted it into the focal point of the east side of the Quad.

In 1959, Boardman Hall was demolished and replaced with the 240,026 sq ft (22,299.1 m2) John M. Olin Graduate Library (1960), designed by Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde.

Early designs extended this space under University Avenue and included windows overlooking Fall Creek gorge.

However, in response to a dramatic increase in the museum's collection, an altered version of that addition, totaling 16,000 square feet (1,500 m2) of above and below ground space was built to the north of the existing building.

[15] It connects to Sibley and Rand Hall and provides 25,000 square feet of studio space for the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and contains a 250-seat auditorium.

During 2007–2010, while Milstein Hall was pending, second year architecture students used rented studio space on Esty Street.

After Dutch elm disease swept the campus, a new row of Zelcova trees was planted in the 1970s along the sidewalk on the eastern edge of the quad.

The Engineering Quad was designed in the 1940s and 1950s on a site at the south end of the central campus previously occupied by the Old Armory and faculty housing, using a master plan developed by the Perkins and Will firm.

[17] Also, modern and open collaborative working spaces were introduced with the construction of a large atrium connecting Duffield, which houses research and teaching facilities for nanoscale science and engineering, with Phillips and Upson (1956)[18] Halls.

On the southern end of the Quad, next to Upson and near Cascadilla Creek, are Kimball, Thurston[21] and Bard (1963)[22] Halls, all part of a single brick and concrete structure.

The building, funded in part by a $25 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is located across Campus Road from Barton Hall and east of Phillips Hall, across Hoy Road, on the site of a parking lot for Hoy Field and Grumman Squash Courts.

The budgeted cost of the building was $60 million to complete and was funded entirely from outside sources without the need for any additional debt.

[31] Between Plant Science and Tower Road is the greenhouses built in 1931 to house Liberty Hide Bailey's palm collection and the Minns Garden.

[37] The most recent addition has been a 105,372 sq ft (9,789.4 m2) expansion of Mann Library to the northeast, designed by Lee Timchula and opened in 2000.

[38] Since 1933, the home economics/human ecology programs have been housed in Martha van Renssalaer Hall (MVR), a 171,648 sq ft (15,946.6 m2) Georgian Revival style brick building designed by William Haugaard located between the Ag Quad and Beebe Lake.

[39] In 1968, a dramatic, cantilevered wing designed by Ulrich Franzen was added to the North side of MVR overlooking Beebe Lake.

[41] The North wing was demolished in 2006, and construction began in 2008 to replace it with an 88,228-square-foot (8,196.6 m2) teaching and laboratory building atop a 290 car parking garage.

[54] The building is a three-story glass structure designed by University Architect Gilbert Delgado, with slanted walls and ceilings for superior acoustics.

[59] In addition, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, a $162 million Life Sciences Technology Building designed by Richard Meier was built on the west end of Upper Alumni Field in 2008.

[citation needed] In 1978, a new 116,854 sq ft (10,856.1 m2) building designed by Ulrich Franzen was built next to the Cornell Veterinary School to house the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research.

Science buildings, in order of construction, are: Also located in this area are Andrew Dickson White's house, the only remaining faculty residence, now housing the Society for the Humanities, and the Big Red Barn, which was White's horse barn and which is now used as a student center for graduate students.

[84] The general trend has been to preserve the central campus as a pedestrian space, and parking lots have been eliminated and used as sites for new buildings.

Subsequently, the western end of Tower Road was permanently closed to all traffic as was Central Avenue, which was developed into Ho Plaza.

[86] Adjacent to the Johnson Art Museum is a pedestrian suspension bridge (1960) designed by Dean S.C. Hollister and William McGuire.