Stanford & Cornell Fight to Win Bid for Engineering Campus in Manhattan

Stanford & Cornell Fight to Win Bid for Engineering Campus in Manhattan(betabeat.com)

31 points by nitashatiku 14 years ago | 12 comments

SkyMarshal 14 years ago |

Fwiw, a friend of mine recently returned to NYC after serving in Iraq in the Army, and started an initiative to get this engineering campus built in Willets Point, Queens:

http://www.coalitionforqueens.org/

His argument in a nutshell: why relegate NYC's tech hub to a single university on a cramped island, relatively inaccessible by subway (which Ramen-subsisting entrepreneurs will need), when you can situate it in the middle of 60+ acres, near the 7 Train, Mets/tennis sports center, and LaGuardia airport, with enough room for several universities plus office space and restaurants and other amenities.

He thinks NYC's attempt at recreating SV will be DOA if it tries to build 'Silicon Island'. Imagine instead having a 60 acre campus with say, Stanford, Cornell, and the Technion, alongside incubators and other entrepreneurial support infrastructure, in the middle of a hungry immigrant community. That's a better recipe for success.

padrack 14 years ago |

What is wrong with NYU or Columbia? Can they not attract top CS talent?

blackguardx 14 years ago | |

It isn't all about CS.

kaa2102 14 years ago | |

The prospects for NYC as an entrepreneurial tech hub are looking better. I think Stanford and Cornell just want a piece of the action.

nitashatiku 14 years ago | | |

Yeah, it's cheap city-owned land and a chance to get in on NYC's bid to become the innovation capital of the East Coast.

hristov 14 years ago | |

They already have their engineering schools in much better Manhattan locations, so I doubt they will be willing to invest hundreds of millions (or perhaps billions) to build a new campus on Roosevelt island.

_delirium 14 years ago |

Hmm, this submission and some other comments around the web call the article "Stanford & Cornell Fight to Win Bid for Engineering Campus in Manhattan", but it's now been changed to not mention Manhattan. From what I can tell, none of the proposed sites are in Manhattan.

jrmurad 14 years ago | |

I lived on Roosevelt Island for a year. It may not be geographically Manhattan but I it (and other East River islands) is in the jurisdiction of that borough.

nitashatiku 14 years ago | |

Roosevelt island is in the borough of Manhattan and counted as Manhattan in the census. It's sort of independent but definitely associated with Manhattan proper.