Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island Campus

In 1828, New York City purchased Blackwell’s Island on the East River, now known as Roosevelt Island. The tiny island once hosted an insane asylum, a smallpox hospital, and prisons which were operational until the 1950s when they were abandoned. Today the island hosts numerous historical landmarks including The Octagon, Chapel of the Good Shepherd, the Blackwell House, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. Most recently, a joint venture between Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology designed and built Cornell’s cutting-edge Tech campus. The state-of-art campus includes academic space, an executive education center/hotel, housing for faculty, students, and staff, and publicly accessible open space. Ferreira was subcontracted by AECOM Tishman to install all utilities and roadways for the site and to execute the elaborate hardscape and landscape design. The campus is cutting edge and one of the most technically and advanced campuses in the world. Ferreira installed the rain harvesting system for irrigation which is comprised of a single wall 40,000-gallon composite/fiberglass underground storage tank and subterranean gravel trenches that hold and slow down stormwater with a series of bio-filtration gardens that treat stormwater runoff non-mechanically before it enters the river. Ferreira also installed an elaborate design of granite pavers which were shipped from China. Ferreira’s project manager accompanied the project architect to China on two occasions to track production and quality of the mined stone. Other work items included stone pavers, exposed aggregate tinted concrete, concrete walkways, campus signage, precast concrete seat walls with skate deterrents, 100% organic ebony wood benches, retaining walls, loose and fixed furnishings, and extensive soils, plantings and landscape rocks and boulders. Today, Roosevelt Island serves as an oasis for residents and visitors of New York City.