SoHo architectural firm picked for university job

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 6, 2002

The SoHo architectural firm of Stonehill & Taylor has won the contract to design and renovate laboratory and office space for the department of physiology at Weill Medical College at Cornell University.

The $9 million project involves renovating 23,300 SF of wet and dry laboratories and office space stretching over four interconnected buildings at the university's campus at 1300 York Ave.

The buildings, which have a limestone exterior graced with Gothic windows were constructed at different times over the past seven decades.

Stonehill & Taylor will be responsible for consolidating all the wet labs, dry labs, and office space together, which now sprawl through the buildings. The goal is to "provide an identity and maximum flexibility for a growing and changing department," said Henry Meltzer, co-principal of Stonehill & Taylor.

The design and construction work will be phased over two years, with completion scheduled for late 2003 or early 2004. During the construction, which is expected to begin in January, scientific work must continue as usual in the physiology department, which will be relocated to swing space for the construction period. "One of the challenges for the project's construction is that it is totally surrounded by other departments that have to function above, below, and to the side of it," Meltzer said.