ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University has created its first permanent, temporary-use office space that will accommodate various campus offices as needed. The housing is at Surge 1, at the entrance of the Cornell Plantations off Forest Home Drive.

The first tenants are two centers displaced when the north wing of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, the home of the College of Human Ecology (CHE), closed in July 2001 due to structural problems. The two centers, the Family Life Development Center and the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, were then temporarily housed in the original Mann Library building.

"Surge 1 was designed to be very flexible so that it can continue to function as temporary space for units that are displaced due to renovations or that need short-term office space," says James T. Kazda, associate director of contract colleges facilities at Cornell. The two CHE-affiliated centers will return to the Martha Van Rensselaer complex when the north wing is replaced.

Kazda reports that the programming phase of the north wing is expected to be completed by early December. "This phase involves the future occupants of the building describing what they plan to do in their space so the architects can design the new building. They describe the furniture and equipment they use, their storage requirements, special building environmental needs and their adjacency requirements with others in the building and throughout the college," says Kazda.

The design phase for the wing will take about 18 months. "We are working on a parallel path in preparing contract documentation for the demolition of the existing building. We are evaluating the possibility of accelerating the demolition. This means the north wing may come down as early as the summer of 2005, with construction of the replacement building scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005," Kazda says.