Cornell and Stanford are continuing their competition to see which institution will win land being offered for free by New York City, reports The New York Times. Along with the free land — either on Roosevelt Island, Governors Island, or the Brooklyn Navy Yard — Mayor Michael Bloomberg is offering incentives worth up to half a billion dollars to create a school of applied science that will lead a surge of business to the city.
Stanford has proposed a science graduate school to be located on Roosevelt Island, and recently said the school would cost $2.5 billion to build, more than double the estimated price tag mere weeks ago, the Times says.
Cornell is also a top contender, having proposed a 2.12 million square foot campus. And New York University leads a coalition of schools that plan to propose a campus located in downtown Brooklyn. Gothamist reports that Cornell is trying to appeal to Bloomberg's green environment sensibilities. The school's campus would be "oriented toward the sun's arc to capture solar power to generate up to 1.8 megawatts a day —enough to supply 1,400 American homes. The school would also use thermal power, tapping into the earth's heat with a 4-acre geothermal field of 400 wells, for an additional energy source," its proposal states. The city plans to pick one, or possibly two, winners by the end of the year, the Times adds.