New York City Council okays plans for Cornell's huge net-zero tech campus

Cornell University's proposal to build a two million sf tech campus on Roosevelt Island has been approved by the New York City Council. The campus will use solar and geothermal power as energy sources to go beyond what is needed for net-zero energy. Construction will begin in 2014.The university agreed to transport construction equipment via barge to limit traffic on the island's main road and monitor air quality throughout the project to alleviate concerns of island residents.

(http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130508/BLOGS04/130509880)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.