Inside a West Campus residential hall

The new West Campus Residential Initiative is attempting to create an entirely new atmosphere of living and learning for post-freshman students at Cornell. The goals for this transformation include:

• Creating a living/learning environment capable of attracting sophomores, transfers, juniors and seniors to West Campus
• Integrating learning components into the undergraduate residential environment, through linkages with academic programs and increased faculty leadership and involvement.
• Defining creative programs, both residential and non-residential, which promote faculty/student interactions
• Enriching students' sense of community and nurturing their intellectual and leadership interests

This initiative involves not only new programming but also a major redesign of the buildings on west campus, replacing the University Class Halls with new Program Houses.

The construction process has begun and will proceed until 2011 in 5 phases. Each phase involves the construction of a new dorm or house and with it the demolition of buildings that infringe on the new building's footprint.

The Alice H. Cook House opened in 2004 and is part of the first phase of the West Campus Residential Initiative construction process. The residential hall was approved as LEED Certified in May 2005. The details of the certification process and the sustainability of the West Campus Designs can be found at the first link below.

For more information, contact Steve Beyers P.E., the ECOS Services Team Leader and a LEED Accredited Professional smb75@cornell.edu.