The design for Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine transformed an ad-hoc and outdated collection of individual buildings into a unified campus, befitting the school’s status as an internationally recognized leader in veterinary education, research, diagnostics, animal care, and biomedical science. Weiss/Manfredi’s design fulfills the programmatic requirements of facility expansion through strategic interior renovations and bold new additions. The 129,140-square-foot project features a 74,460-square-foot new construction and a 54,680-square-foot gut renovation, adding teaching spaces, connecting the hospital to the college, and creating public forums within the same overall square footage as the original complex. The newly constructed Gallery creates a “town square” for the complex, providing opportunities for informal meetings, social gatherings, performances, and dining. Thanks to north-facing clerestory windows, daylight baths the interior. The Gallery also connects to teaching and research spaces, the medical center, and a new shared central courtyard for events and gatherings. Teaching spaces include two new wood-lined, double-story tiered lecture halls that each support seating for up to 160 people, and can be combined to provide an amphitheater for larger scale symposiums, lectures, and performances. Additionally, two new 60-seat, flat-floor classrooms allow for multiple teaching configurations. Existing lecture halls, laboratories, new seminar rooms, a cafeteria, and an administrative suite encircle the Gallery. An updated entry plaza framed by a new library wing and a reclad Veterinary Research Tower presents a new, unified front door. The redesign significantly increases the energy efficiency of the new spaces as well as the research tower, which has a new curtain wall. The project achieved LEED Gold certification.
