An inside look at new structures on North Campus

Today the Cornell Chronicle presents the second installment of a four-week series on the university's North Campus Residential Initiative. The stories in today's edition focus on the amenities of the new buildings and their relation to the initiative's goals and on the Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies book project for first-year students. In the coming weeks, stories will discuss the carefully planned architecture and sustainable design of the new campus community and the anticipated outcomes and actual impact of the initiative on the campus.

From left, freshmen Brooke Siegel, human ecology, from New York City; Seth Helfgott, arts and sciences, from Boston; and Bryn Fuller, arts and sciences, from La Jolla, Calif., ride stationary bikes in the fitness center in the Community Commons on North Campus earlier this week. Robert Barker/University Photography

By Linda Myers

Anyone who has jogged or driven along Pleasant Grove Road during the past 16 months has seen the transformation of a muddy field into a bright new campus.

Three new buildings border "the Crescent" -- a half-moon plaza defined by a curved sitting wall. Two, Mews and Court halls, are of brick and Llenroc, the distinctive shale-dense rock that's quarried locally. Triangular windows on the top floors echo the peaked dormers and gables of Balch Hall to the south. The third, Community Commons, is a glass and brick cube that is perhaps most stunning at night, when it glows like a beacon.

Jean Reese, student and academic services' project leader on the North Campus Residential Initiative, has been leading informal tours of the three buildings since they neared completion this summer. Her energy has yet to flag, despite the demand on her time, and there is still a little bounce in her step as she leads the way to the new campus.

The three-story glass-windowed atrium of Community Commons, she points out, is more than merely decorative. It allows students, inside and out, to take in the action on all floors at once. "It's a see-and-be-seen environment that students seem to like," said Reese, who was a teacher of young people before she joined Cornell Residence Life in 1986.

The gas fireplace on the atrium's first floor, one of two in the Commons, is surrounded by comfortable couches and armchairs, the kind you can sink into on a cold winter day, with oriental rugs on the floor "to make the place feel homelike," she said.

A student lunches in a glass-enclosed dining-and-lounge area on the second floor of the Community Commons building. "It's a see-and-be-seen environment that students seem to like," said Jean Reese, student and academic services' project leader on the North Campus Residential Initiative. Robert Barker/University Photography

There also are a mailroom service desk, a café called Ezra's, a copy center and school supply store and a 3,200-square-foot fitness center, with windows that offer relaxing views of the woods and route toward central campus. The equipment -- treadmills, step machines, stationary bicycles, elliptical trainers, rowers and weights -- is state of the art, says the student behind the front desk. Like Helen Newman Hall, across the crescent, the facility is comprehensive, offering both weight and cardiovascular equipment.

"Membership in campus fitness centers has skyrocketed," said Reese. A year's membership is $130 for students and $160 for faculty and staff and includes use of all five fitness centers on campus.

Vincent Poon, a freshman in the College of Engineering from New York, used the Commons fitness center to work out recently after lunch at the North Star eatery one floor up. "I think it's good they put it next to the dining hall," he said. And Rachel Barnes, a junior from Kansas who is studying city and regional planning, walked over from her nearby sorority to test out the center and said: "I like it a lot -- it's great!"

North Star, which dominates the second floor, offers eight distinct stations where food is prepared and served -- among them Anything Doughs (Sicilian pizza, pannini, pasta and vegan offerings), Field o' Greens (make your own salad) and World's Fare (cuisine from around the globe). There's also a late-night menu from 9 to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. When it's busiest, the atmosphere is a bit like a video-game parlor, but the offerings are plentiful and tasty.

Although the facility seats 625, "you won't see any airplane runway tables," said Reese. Instead there are clusters of tables for four. Seating extends to an outdoor balcony and the third floor, which also has a multipurpose room for talks, fitness, dance, martial arts and meditation classes. In addition, there are private meeting areas, divided by movable whiteboard walls, that professors can book for dinner and discussions with students, said Reese. (To reserve, call Conference Services, 255-6290.) Furniture is light and bright, in keeping with the building's overall décor.

The triangular windows on the top floors of Court Hall echo the peaked dormers and gables of Balch Hall. Robert Barker/University Photography

Like the Commons, Mews and Court halls have clean, contemporary furnishings and windows that capture as much sunlight as possible, a top request of the 700 students who evaluated life-sized models of the rooms before construction began.

All three buildings are designed to help students get to know each other and interact more with faculty in a living-and-learning environment, said Reese. "The first floors in the residence halls are public space," she explained, with two comfortably furnished meeting rooms in each one that are being used for freshman writing seminars. There are also offices for faculty fellows and residence hall staff trained to help freshmen cope with first-year stresses. Small study rooms have windows into adjacent laundry rooms "because students like to multitask," and a bicycle storage room has an outside access door for muddy bikes. Corridors are painted a sunny yellow.

A 10-minute fireworks display over the Community Commons and the new athletic fields on North Campus highlights the initiative's Grand Opening Student Celebration Aug. 31. Charles Harrington/University Photography

Upstairs (Mews is three stories high, Court is four) is the private space, accessible only to residents with entry cards, explained Reese. Again, the emphasis is on small groupings. Study spaces are plentiful, one for each corridor of 30 students. Hallways, carpeted in soft gray-green or blue tones, widen into alcoves outside each complex of rooms and can be used as gathering places. Rooms are grouped six to an alcove, with three -- two doubles and a single -- plus a bathroom on each side. "We won't furnish [the alcoves] because we want the students to make the space their own," said Reese. "I imagine them dragging beanbag chairs or pillows out here to socialize and study."

Inside, the rooms seem roomy, with ceilings as high as five feet above lofted beds in some. Windows are shaped so that light pours in and the furnishings are modern and modular, easy to rearrange. "Control over one's physical space is important to our students," Reese said.

Jessica Boynton is a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences from Colorado who is working as a resident assistant (R.A.) in Mews Hall. She said of the new facility: "I love the color tones -- lots of yellows. You can't help but smile, it's so bright. I love the setup too -- lots of personal space but plenty of room to interact, and lots of study space, so everyone has the opportunity to get what they need."

"They're going to like it," said Ek Kriengkraipetch, a program assistant (P.A.) in Mews who is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences from Thailand. "So far, we can tell we've got plenty of resources -- multipurpose rooms, laundries, study rooms, plenty of kitchens and tons of fridges" -- an asset for Kriengkraipetch, who enjoys cooking Thai food on occasion.

Sophomore Oluwole Tairu, agriculture and life sciences, and junior Randolph Rodrigues, arts and sciences, join diners in the North Star in the Community Commons. Robert Barker/University Photography

Erikka Loftfield, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences from Massachusetts, who lives on the top floor of Court said, "I love it." And her roommate, Marcia Regen, a freshman in the School of Hotel Administration from New York City, said: "I was very happy when I found out I was assigned to one of the new residence halls."

All rooms on campus cost about the same -- $4,972 annually for a double room, $5,622 for a single this year -- and costs have not risen because of the new construction. Some of the older residence halls have been spiffed up, though, so that no students should feel they're more, or less, privileged than others. "Each of Cornell's residence halls has its own charm and special amenities," said Reese.

Still, despite the hullabaloo about the new buildings, what will really matter for the 3,000 or so freshmen housed on North Campus this year will be social interaction and intellectual engagement. If all goes well for them, said Reese, "new students will come away feeling that Cornell is a welcoming and caring place. They will have made friends and gotten to know faculty and have had a successful first year."