Bill Staffeld/AAP

Dean Kent Kleinman confers with students during their Master of Architecture reviews in Sibley Hall last December.

College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) Dean Kent Kleinman spoke out at a Faculty Senate meeting Feb. 11, stressing the need to build Paul Milstein Hall. The proposed 46,000-square-foot building will connect to Sibley and Rand halls, and was designed by architect Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).

"The design that we have ... and the need to build it is very, very real for us," he said to the capacity crowd, including several students, in Goldwin Smith Hall's Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium. "We are in extreme danger of losing our accreditation for our architecture programs."

Kleinman was responding to a proposed (and later tabled) Faculty Senate resolution backed by a group of Cornell faculty members who have questioned the university's plans to proceed with the Milstein Hall project while there is a pause in campus construction.

A group of 21 current and emeritus faculty and three alumni made their opposition public in a letter to The Cornell Daily Sun published Jan. 30, three days after the Milstein Hall project cleared the last of its municipal approvals by the City of Ithaca Planning and Development Board. The letter was quickly followed by letters of support for the AAP construction project from numerous alumni, faculty and administrators to local media including the Cornell Chronicle and the Sun. Many of these letters emphasize the project's longstanding necessity to provide appropriate facilities for the college and accreditation for its programs, including a nationally top-ranked architecture program.

The opposition group's letter to the Sun, and a subsequently proposed Faculty Senate resolution, asked President David Skorton to add Milstein Hall to the construction pause and re-evaluation of current capital projects he announced in late October, now in effect until June 30. The group stated that the project is not yet fully funded, and that to proceed with construction would not be appropriate at a time when the university is belt-tightening. They also cited sustainability and aesthetic issues with the building.

The project to expand and upgrade AAP facilities was first funded in 2000 by a gift from the family of real estate developer Paul Milstein. It has gone through at least three designs since then.

Kleinman, who previously termed Milstein "the culmination of a decade-long struggle to address the college's inadequate facilities," also addressed the funding issue before the Faculty Senate.

"We do not have $52 million in our pocket," he said. "We're a small college. We have a fundraising goal of $30 million, and we're very close to that goal." Of the remaining cost, he said, "AAP plans to pick up $12 million of that with planned debt financing," further reducing the university's share of the debt burden.

"The total project cost will include site work, fees, improvements or additions to Cornell utilities, infrastructure, roads and adjacent structures such as the Foundry," he said earlier in response to a Chronicle inquiry.

Change in resolution

Linguistics professor Abigail Cohn, one of the original opposition letter signees and a senator-at-large who endorsed a resolution requesting adding Milstein Hall to the construction pause, said that part of the resolution was no longer necessary after Stephen Golding, executive vice president for finance and administration, explained to the campus community in a Feb. 10 letter to the Sun that Milstein Hall was among the projects included in the construction pause and review. An amended resolution was drafted and distributed Feb. 10, after Golding's comments were published.

"We consider it addressed -- and we welcome this news," Cohn said. Speaking of the original resolution, she said: "This resolution is neither for nor against Milstein Hall -- it is about process, and the way decisions are being made during this financially difficult time."

The amended resolution was not considered at Wednesday's meeting due to senate by-laws requiring one week of review by the body. The senate passed a motion to table the original resolution but defeated another motion to call a Feb. 18 special meeting. The amended resolution will go before the senate March 11.

The new resolution does not specifically mention Milstein, but instead asks that Skorton and the Cornell Board of Trustees "adopt a new policy governing construction and renovation of all buildings that requires a plan for securing the full funding of construction and operation of each building before the construction begins." The resolution further asks the administration to evaluate ongoing construction projects and to delay those projects not yet fully funded, and to enforce strict energy efficiency standards.

Golding has said that, following a thorough review of each project by his office, Skorton will consider and recommend whether the university should proceed with those projects that are critical to the university and have an approved funding plan.

"The pause does not mean no projects are moving forward," Provost Kent Fuchs explained at the senate meeting. "There are projects with urgency, and all kinds of projects in all the colleges."

Letters of support

A letter sent Feb. 11 and signed by Department of Architecture Chair Mark Cruvellier and 17 other architecture faculty members contended that the building "is urgently needed by the department in order to maintain our accreditations as a professional school of architecture." The features Milstein would add -- studio/laboratory space, an auditorium for classes and public lectures, design review and exhibition areas -- "all fulfill essential needs and programmatic functions for the Department of Architecture."

The National Architecture Accreditation Board wrote to Skorton in November, citing a lack of "physical resources appropriate for a professional degree program in architecture, and the continued postponement of renovations to existing facilities" that would ensure compliance with building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In their letter, the architecture faculty said the OMA design would leave Rand Hall intact, a more economical option than previous proposals. They also called Milstein "a building whose construction will provide a much-needed economic stimulus to the broader Ithaca community … it will create desperately needed employment."

In another letter on Feb. 10 to fellow Cornell faculty, 13 Department of Art faculty members agreed that Milstein Hall would "be an exciting catalyst for new ways of thinking pedagogically and spatially for all faculty members and students," and would "serve as a challenge and stimulus for open-minded, cross-disciplinary exploration for the college and its three departments."

Kleinman told the Chronicle: "I believe many [AAP] faculty, students and outside constituents were very taken aback that several faculty would oppose a project that is so essential to the academic mission of the college at such a late stage of its long history. Once the facts and details of the project are better known, I am hopeful that faculty and students throughout the university will find ample reason to come visit the college."