High-performance megapanels form a dynamic enclosure for a net-zero building at Cornell Tech’s new Roosevelt Island campus.

Designed as an exemplar of sustainability, the LEED Platinum Bloomberg Center provides a welcoming hub for Cornell Tech, an innovation-focused New York City campus. Covered by a 40,000 SF photovoltaic canopy and featuring a green roof, rainwater collection system, and geothermal wells, the building houses flexible spaces for learning, gathering, and working.

The facade design was carefully calibrated to address the project’s net-zero energy goals, minimizing thermal bridging while maximizing insulation. When viewed from certain angles, its metal cladding's distinctive perforated pattern reveals images of Manhattan and Ithaca.

The perforated aluminum panels were custom fabricated by Zahner before delivery to Island’s facility for assembly onto the megapanel facade system and subsequent delivery to site. The complete facade enclosure scope also included the fabrication and install of large-format glazing within the panel system, high-performance integrated louvers, and GFRC finishes.  

Our facade team worked closely with architect Morphosis and key material vendors through a design-assist approach to tailor the megapanel designs for the rainscreen’s curving geometry and variable patterning. In their finished state, no two panels are exactly alike.

The large-format facade system’s gasketed joinery meets stringent performance criteria for airtightness, allowing the prefabricated system to meet the project’s sustainability goals. Rainscreen cladding held outboard of the megapanel frames with thermally broken girts allow for flexibility to accommodate increased depth of continuous mineral-wool insulation in order to meet thermal performance requirements for the facade system. 

Given Cornell Tech’s campus location on Roosevelt Island in the East River, a logistics solution that included barges was developed to transport the large-format panelized facade to site for installation via hydraulic mobile-cranes.

Project Information:

• Location: New York, NY

• Year Completed: 2017

• Certification: LEED Platinum

• Facade Area: 61,000 SF

• Panel Count: 400

• Island Services Provided:

  • Design Assist

  • Engineering

  • Fabrication

  • Installation

Learn More:

• Cornell Tech, The Story Behind the Bloomberg Center Facade

• Architectural Record, Bloomberg Center by Morphosis Architects at Cornell Tech

• The Architect’s Newspaper, Morphosis-Designed Bloomberg Center at Cornell Tech Celebrates Opening