That building was later used as DeWitt Junior High school for a number of years and was saved from demolition by the local architect William Downing.

Downing converted the building into an eclectic collection of shops, offices, studios, apartments, and restaurants known as the Dewitt Mall.

[3] Designed by the architecture firm Perkins and Will,[4] it is a California-style campus, with 11 mostly interconnected buildings spread across a fairly wide area.

Some have praised the campus as being architecturally innovative, while others have criticized it as inefficient and inappropriate to Ithaca's climate (notably as students routinely travel outdoors between classes, out of necessity or for a more direct route).

From 2007 to 2009, additions were built that doubled the size of Kulp Auditorium, adding separate rehearsal, practice and office spaces for the orchestra, choir and band, as well as create a large fitness center and competition gymnasium .

They also have students from Ithaca's poorer streets and from the hardscrabble farms and mobile homes in the villages that surround this Finger Lakes city.

During this time, the band commissioned 24 new compositions (many by Pulitzer Prize winners and some now important wind ensemble pieces), performed at locations such as the Eastman School of Music, the New York World's Fair and Rockefeller Center, and played with guest soloists and conductors including Benny Goodman and Doc Severinsen.

It celebrated its 100th anniversary with a concert that included a newly commissioned work entitled Enlightened City by composer Robert Paterson.

[22] In February 2008, principal Joseph M. Wilson was granted tenure in return for agreeing to resign at the end of the 2008–2009 school year.

In December 2007, over 200 Ithaca residents signed a petition calling for him to be fired[8] after what they believed was Wilson's mishandling of a series of racially charged incidents in the school.

[9] In August 2014, Jarrett Powers announced he was leaving to become Superintendent of the Union Springs Central School District.