ITHACA, N.Y.— In an announcement Friday morning, Cornell University unveiled plans for a new $55 million fieldhouse largely funded by and in memory of the former chair of its Board of Trustees.
The 91,950 square-foot building will be called the Indoor Sports and Recreation Center as a working name, but formally it will be dedicated as the “Meinig Fieldhouse”, in honor of late Board of Trustees Chair and Class of 1961 alumnus Peter C. Meinig.
The new facility would be built on a portion of the Robison Alumni Fields between Tower Road and Bartels Hall, a site Cornell says it chose for its central location on campus and ease of access for students. The location also happens to be situated just east of Weill Hall, home to the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, created with a $50 million donation from the Meinigs back in 2015.
Initial design concepts from Boston-based Sasaki Associates shows a large one-story building with angular window openings and structural folds for entry/exit in an otherwise minimalist metal façade. The building’s primary feature will be a fully-enclosed 120-yard by 60-yard (64,800 square-foot) turf field, alongside complementary features such as a scoreboard, spectator area and storage spaces.
In addition, the indoor field will be designed to accommodate NCAA men’s and women’s lacrosse competitions, and divider curtains will allow multiple campus groups to use the facility simultaneously. A mezzanine will include two team rooms, restrooms, meeting rooms and offices.
The intent is for the Indoor Sports and Recreation Center to be used by both NCAA and intramural athletic organizations, as well as other large-group outdoor-based student groups like the Big Red Band and Cornell Cheerleading, we will be able to make use of the space during Ithaca’s cold and dark winter months.
According to the university’s press release, “(t)he fieldhouse will enable year-round competition, training and skills development for varsity and recreational student-athletes alike.” Also included in the project plans is a reconstruction of Marsha Dodson Field, Cornell’s field hockey facility adjacent to Alumni Field.
The press release states that $32.5 million has already been raised towards construction funding of the project, primarily from deep-pocketed donors who share the altruistic intent of the Meinigs. The remainder of the costs are also expected to be covered primarily by Cornell’s benefactors, with a $10 million challenging match fund established by an anonymous donor to encourage alumni support. The total cost of the plan is around $55 million, according to the release.
According to the university’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget plan, Cornell allotted $4 million towards capital costs associated with the Meinig Fieldhouse project, referred to in the document as the “Indoor Campus Recreation and Sports Center.”
The announcement comes the same week that the Weill Cornell Medical School in New York City announced plans for a residence hall in the Upper East Side of the city, projected to cost $261 million.
The university intends to begin construction on the athletics project in the fall of 2024, with a 2026 completion date. Plans have yet to be submitted for the City of Ithaca Planning Board for review — the boundary line between the city of Ithaca and the town of Ithaca appears to pass just to the east of the proposed building.
Cornell has a fairly flexible U-1 zoning in the city of Ithaca that gives them a wide berth for building planning and design, with reviews usually dealing less with design and pleasing neighbors, and more centered on making sure the paperwork is complete and that environmental impacts are effectively mitigated.