Proposed engineering facility begins city review

An architectural artist's watercolor impression of the interior of Duffield Hall. The view is from Phillips atrium looking south through the winter garden atrium toward Upson Hall. R. Hoyen/Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca Partnership.

Plans for Duffield Hall, a new research center facility aimed at keeping Cornell a leader in nanotechnology, have been submitted to the city of Ithaca, beginning the environmental and site-plan review processes.

Recognizing the importance of public discussion of the potential environmental impacts of the type of research in the new facility, the university will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project. At its Jan. 25 meeting, the city's Planning and Development Board concurred with Cornell's proposal that an EIS would be appropriate.

A presentation on the Duffield Hall project is scheduled for the city's Planning and Development Board meeting Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m. A public scoping session for the EIS will take place Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. Both meetings are in Ithaca City Hall, 108 East Green St.

Nanotechnology -- an area critical to future developments in fields such as information technology, materials science and biotechnology -- means constructing and looking at things with features that are on the order of a billionth of a meter (nanometer). By contrast, a human hair is typically 80,000 nanometers in diameter, and even a blood cell measures approximately 5,000 nano-meters across.

Duffield Hall will be one of the nation's most sophisticated research and teaching facilities for nanotechnology and the development of novel materials. The new 150,000-square-foot facility will be located on the university's Engineering Quad, adjacent to the west side of Phillips Hall, and will connect to both Upson Hall and Phillips Hall with atriums for staff and student interactions. In conjunction with the new facility, the Engineering Quad will undergo a facelift that includes regrading, lighting, new pathways and landscaping.

John Hopcroft, dean of the College of Engineering, said: "The implications of this research are enormous, from building faster and more powerful computers and the evolution of cleaner manufacturing methods, to the development of mechanical devices that can fight disease within the human body. Construction of Duffield Hall will allow us to bring together many of the various nanotechnology and materials-development groups that currently work independently in various parts of the campus."

Hopcroft said constructing the new facility "is an opportunity to upgrade our capabilities to accomplish this research and provide state-of-the-art safety and environmental systems."

Currently, research and instruction in the disciplines that will be housed in Duffield support 80 jobs and approximately 90 graduate students on campus. The existing programs are supported by about $12 million in university, private-sector and government funding annually. It is estimated that research and programs conducted in Duffield could attract several million dollars in new corporate and government funds each year.

The total project cost is estimated to be $53.5 million. The largest gift pledged to the project is a $20 million donation from David A. Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft Inc. Duffield graduated from Cornell with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1963 and a master's degree in business administration in 1964. The balance of financial support will come from other alumni, individuals and corporations.