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Ithaca, New York-Starting from where the first part stopped (my car has been repaired, which gave me a sigh of relief), it's time for the second part of the Ithaca City project construction update. Thanks again to my colleagues Matt Butler and Jimmy Jordan for their help in shooting the website.
We have arranged the time for this article to provide you with a few minutes to distract you from the Thanksgiving holiday, so pour yourself your favorite drink and tell your relatives when you finish this article , You will be with them, then let's go.
We will start with a project recently completed in University City, the new student institution building at 411-15 University Avenue, almost at the door of Cornell University. The $12 million new student institution building provides commercial retail space on the first floor and 56 student apartments on the second to sixth floors.
Subdivided into 26 studio apartments (average area of 383 square feet), 7 one-bedroom units (577 square feet), 21 two-bedroom units (737 square feet) and 2 three-bedroom units (1,029 square feet). Except for the three-bedroom, they are all smaller than the typical newly built room. The unit is equipped with full appliances (the kitchen has been criticized for lack of functionality) and tenant facilities such as a gym. The 4,000-square-foot ground floor retail space is being renovated for restaurant use and leased by Ithaca Brewing Company. Part of the outdoor plaza below the collision of the building structure will be used as a dining terrace space.
There have been many controversies in this project. One problem was to demolish the century-old Chakona neighborhood to make way for the building, after the mayor rejected the city’s landmark designation by a tie vote. The second problem is the sky-high rent of the unit. Although these units and their prices are no longer listed because they are all rented out in 2022-23, the screenshot shows that the 340 square foot studio starts at $1,950 per month, while the rent for a two-bedroom unit is between 3,450 and 3,450 per month. US$ 4,200.
It drew some compelling comments, but it also reflected that the market allowed a brand new building next door to the Cornell University campus. There is an exclusive market for college students. The size and prestige of Cornell University has quite a few wealthy students willing to pay high prices that most of us think are unreasonable. The student agency knows that they can ask for a high price and get it. According to records, the project is paying the property tax in full, and the property tax assessment in the university city is as high as the rent.
The local company HOLT Architects designed the new building, and Ithaca's Whitham Planning and Design designed the new public plaza space. TG Miller PC was responsible for civil engineering work, and Elwyn & Palmer consulting engineers in Ithaca provided further engineering work. Purcell Construction Company is responsible for the expansion project.
126 College Avenue is the last of three smaller mid-level infill projects planned by the Visum Development Group in University City, Ithaca. The first two, 210 Linden Avenue and 118 College Avenue, were completed a few years ago.
The five-bedroom apartment building at 126 College Avenue is replaced by a five-unit student apartment building, four-bedroom apartments on the ground floor, five-bedroom apartments on the ground floor, and six-bedroom apartments on the second, third, and fourth floors. The units here are a bit cheaper per person than student institutions, but As a new building inside the university town, it is still very high-the rent for a six-bedroom unit is about $1,250 per person per month. To this end, tenants can get stainless steel appliances, fully equipped units, free Wi-Fi, in-unit washers/dryers, pet-friendly policies, and gyms in Visum’s larger Collegetown projects (such as The Lux and 201 College Avenue), Storage room and lounge space.
STREAM Collaborative, a local construction company, designed the 126 College and its siblings, using fiber cement boards (Allura fiber cement in "dark green" and "sun-leaf yellow" with wood strip decoration, see second photo) , Treated wood decoration and metal balcony. The original 2017 plan was revised in 2020 with the approval of the city government, and then adjusted after approval to replace the steel balcony railings with treated wood. Unless there are special design sensitivities, such as projects in historic districts, minor changes such as decoration or material colors are usually handled at the employee level after approval.
Due to the uncertainty caused by COVID last year, Collegetown’s proposal has stalled, but compared to normal conditions, at least three mid-level projects are planned to be built in 2022-23-two of which are 35-unit construction developer Josh 121 Oak Avenue and "The Ruby" in Lower, a proposal for 39 units planned by builder Boris Simkin at 228 Dryden Road. At the same time, Visum plans to build a smaller 8-unit building at 238 Dryden Road, which will open in August 2022.
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Since its approval in September 2020, Balch Hall's renovation plan has been somewhat secondary. Balch Hall is a nearly 100-year-old building covering 167,000 square feet. It has long been Cornell University’s all-female freshman dormitory; if you want to learn more about the proposed bowel refurbishment For more information, Voice has provided service for you.
A quick review. Refurbishment works affecting the exterior of the building include replacement of windows, reconstruction and/or replacement of drains, downpipes and smaller exterior walls for new waterproofing and exterior wall work, and installation of four roof dividers and skylights. Accommodating new elevators. Many landscaping and accessibility improvements are also included, including new stairs, ramps, and lighting. Outside, the plan calls for the replacement of all bathrooms, bedrooms and sink rooms to make room for the new lounge and about 280 beds, adding about 34 beds, because the sink room is deleted to transform the single room into a slightly larger double room. Refurbishment costs will exceed 1 million U.S. dollars.
According to the Cornell Daily Sun, the initial schedule was delayed due to COVID, and the dormitory was used as a quarantine housing (no longer used for this purpose) early in the fall. The new Tony Morrison dormitory will be used as an all-female freshman dormitory in Balch's place. Refurbishment work will now begin in the next few months and is expected to be completed in August 2023, one year later than originally expected.
The first phase of Cornell's $175 million North Campus residential expansion project has begun, and the second phase is moving towards completion in August 2022. Accurately conveying the sheer scale of this nearly 800,000 square foot project has been a daunting task, partly because it is divided into two locations and two phases. The first phase that just opened will eventually be used as a sophomore dormitory with 821 beds, and the second phase will be used as an undergraduate dormitory with 1244 beds. Currently, the first phase is for new-born housing, and Balch is being renovated, and plans to renovate the neighbouring Clara Dickson Hall (large colonial-style building) are being finalized.
Using drone photos provided by Cornell University and its architect ikon.5, the penultimate photo is the second stage, Barbara McClintock (BS 1923, MA 1925, Ph.D. 1927) Hall in the foreground, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (BA 1954) the hall on the left, and the Hu Shi (BA 1914) hall at the back on the right. In the last photo, the first stage is in the foreground. The two wings on the left are Ganędagǫ (pronounced Gah-NEH-dah-go), which means “it’s in On the mountain") language, the picture on the right shows Toni Morrison (MA 1955). Morrison also owns a 50,000 square foot restaurant.
Welliver and its subcontractors have basically completed the appearance of the second phase, with gray and salmon-colored terracotta panels and the usual modern glass curtain walls and steel accents. Sun visors and glass treatments on large areas of glass limit the intensity of sunlight passing through the glass wall, as it affects the building's energy system and damages internal materials. Inside, it seems that lighting equipment has been installed, so the rough installation of public facilities (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) is basically completed, and the gypsum board seems to be in place. Ultimately, adding 2,000 beds to Cornell University’s housing stock should help ease the pressure on Ithaca’s under-supplied housing market, especially since sophomores at Cornell University will soon be required to live on campus inside.
If you want to know, students have a lot of complaints about the new building, including shower drains that are flush with the floor (that is, they are flooded), enclosed spaces that isolate students from each other, and very "office building style". But they Like hardwood floors and air conditioning, so it's not all barbs and complaints.
It may be a small project, but it is one of the projects I get the most questions about, mainly related to when it will open. KBP Investments, headquartered in Kansas, is redeveloping a 0.74 acre parking lot at 405 Elmira Road on the southwestern edge of the city to make room for a new 2,220 square foot stand-alone restaurant with a single-lane through train and 23 Parking spaces. The reconstruction plan also includes regular supplements for site leveling, drainage, access drives, lighting, and landscape improvements. Construction started at the end of September.
When these photos were taken (taken by my colleague Matt earlier this month), the foundation has been poured and the framework is in progress. Smaller restaurant buildings can use steel nail walls or wood, although they have their pros and cons. Steel is more expensive than wood, and it takes longer, but considering that food is cooked in it and wood is combustible, the insurance rate for wooden structures will be higher. When the design is not complicated and there are few openings, wood is the first choice. This KFC will not have wide doors and wide windows.
When I last contacted Rich Wilkinson of KBP Brands, the plan was to open the restaurant before Christmas. It feels like a fairly fast speed, of course depending on the good luck of Ithaca's well-known changeable weather, but we will see what happens.
Guthrie Clinic has made significant progress in the new medical office opposite the TCAT headquarters. Although technically part of the City Harbor complex, Guthrie is developing its new 62,000-square-foot medical building separately, under the responsibility of its own architects and contractors. The building broke ground in October 2020.
Due to the time difference between this building and other buildings in City Harbor, the development team added a mechanical room to the Point East building to support the heat exchange system of all City Harbor buildings and Guthrie Medical Office Building, and it must be used as an independent building. Building construction, as the Point East apartment building is completed, it will be wrapped in an internal parking lot in City-Harbor.
According to Guthrie, the new office building will provide space for walk-in clinics, orthopedics/physiotherapy, radiology, gastroenterology, urology, general surgery, neurosurgery, nephrology, otolaryngology and audiology, including Internal analysis determined that the services provided by Ithaca and Tompkins counties were insufficient. At the same time, Guthrie is establishing a cancer treatment center in Cortland.
The current plan is to open the new Ithaca building in February 2022. You can see that the exterior has been basically completed, and some Trespa Meteon high-pressure fiber laminates have not yet been connected to the top and rear rails (the yellow material is mineral wool insulation). The rest of the exterior uses synthetic plaster, modular bricks and stone veneer bases. The sidewalks and curbs are there, but the property has not yet been paved, and the landscaping may have to wait until spring.
Initially, about 50 employees will work outside the building, of which about three-quarters are new employees, responsible for Guthrie's expansion, hiring more positions as the building becomes full. Welliver and Guthrie frequently cooperate and are contractors for the project, and HBT Architects in Rochester provides design/engineering services.
The three-building, 66-unit, 153-bedroom apartment project of Visum Development and Modern Living Rentals is progressing smoothly in Nanshan. The project is aimed at students of Ithaca College and has been ongoing for the past few years, but it is also controversial. A legal challenge to the project has been raised in the state courts. Although this has caused some legal issues for municipal staff as the legal process continues, the project is currently moving forward.
Work continues on the concrete block stairwell and elevator core-the large gaps seen in the last two photos are corner posts for windows. The foundation has been insulated and waterproofed, and the lower floors of the building are being assembled with insulated concrete formwork (ICF), which is not common but not unheard of in local multi-family residential projects (Thurston Avenue Apartments and Ithaca) Examples of terraces, etc.)). ICF is a dense block with interlocking steel bars. After fixing them together, pour concrete to provide the necessary strength and rigidity. ICF tends to be more expensive, but it is faster to build and more energy efficient.
Regarding the cost issue, the planning committee and the development team had a heated debate on the exterior finishes, and several meetings were needed to reach an agreement. The ground will be made of bricks, the aluminum panels will face South Aurora/96B, and the top layer will be made of cheaper EIFS synthetic plaster, with nicks that look like bricks.
According to online rental information, the price of a one-bedroom unit ranges from $1,800 to $2,000 per month, and the price of a two-bedroom unit ranges from $2,000 to $2,450 per month. A few larger units cost about US$950 to US$1,000 per bedroom per month. The unit will include free Wi-Fi, in-unit washer/dryer, air conditioning, furnished living space, and community facilities such as a gym, rooftop terrace and outdoor barbecue area. What’s more unusual is the extensive tenant program, which is different from universities—"onsite community activities, such as outdoor film screenings and yoga classes or registration, for an additional fee, you can participate in planned day trips and weekend vacations to explore the Finger Lakes" .
The goal of the project is to be completed in August 2022. It seems that the larger pair of buildings (A and B) may be completed first, while the smaller third building (Building C) will be completed later. Welliver was responsible for building the larger pair, and Plumb, Level & Square was responsible for handling "Building C". STREAM Collaborative at Ithaca is the project architect.
The residential area in the West End is the Vecino Group's Arthaus low- and medium-income housing development project in Cherry Street, which was formerly an AJ foreign auto repair shop. The US$28.8 million project has been completed and is now renting out tenants.
Cornerstone Property Management in Rochester will manage the property, which includes 123 apartments (48 studios, 55 one-bedroom and 20 two-bedrooms) and a supplementary one-bedroom apartment for the property manager. The unit is for people with a median income (AMI) of 50-80%; the income limit is based on the combination of AMI and family size, which can be found here, as well as the monthly rent for each unit, as well as lease applications, in case readers are interested.
Among them, 83 units are used in the general affordable housing market. As for the other 40 units, The Vecino Group has partnered with Tompkins Community Action to use them for supportive housing, specifically for former foster youth and homeless youth aged 18-25. The building will have an on-site gallery space managed by its neighbor Cherry Art Space, as well as space for support services, a community room, fitness room, indoor bicycle storage, and a flexible gathering/work space.
Except for the black nicks between the fiber cement exterior wall panels, the rendering effect of the E-shaped building is very accurate. Vecino, based in Missouri, is a large enough company that uses in-house architecture and construction teams to design and build Ithaca Arthaus. Participating with Vecino on the project team are Elmira's Fagan Engineers in civil engineering, local company Taitem Engineering as an energy consultant, and Ithaca's Whitham Planning and Design Company in charge of landscape architecture and community outreach.
Brian Crandall reports on housing and development for Voice of Ithaca. You can contact him at bcrandall@ithacavoice.com. More artworks by Bryan Crandall
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