Cornell Tech - New York, NY - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

The plaque says, "In 2011, the City of New York and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (2002-2013) issued a global challenge to academic institutions, inviting them to enter a competition to develop a world class Applied Sciences campus on city-owned land, with $100-million investment of city funds.

The competition was conceived to support and accelerate the growth of the city's tech industries and to position the city as a global leader in technological innovation. The winning proposal was submitted by a partnership between Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

The first phase of Cornell Tech campus opened in September 2017. Today, the campus's buildings are as technologically advanced and forward looking as the ideas being expelled within their walls. The 12-acre site has had a storied history serving the wider need of the city.

With city prisons overcrowded, construction began in 1828 for a penitentiary on what was then Blackwell's Island. Resembing a foreboding fortress, the 800-prisoner grant complete would be expanded multiple times through the 19th century.

By the early 20th century, poor living conditions coupled with corrupt management-inclduing two highly organized gangs-propter the city to build a modern facility on Riker's Island and, in 1936, the prison was demolished.

In 1939, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's administration opened a chronic disease hospital that would eventually be named for city hospitals Chief, Dr. Sigismund Goldwater. The modern 1,000-patient complex boasted ample windows that gave the sick maximum access to fresh air and sunlight. The Art Deco complex included chevron shaped potion wards with circular day rooms and curved terraces that afforded views of Manhattan and Queens. Sciences and researchers working here developed pioneering treatments on chronic illnesses, including malaria. Their work contributed significantly to combating disease during World War II.

The Works Progress Administration commissioned four artists -llya Bolotowsky, Albert Swinden, Joseph Rugolo and Dane Chinase- to paint murals in the circular day rooms at Goldwater Hospital. Completed in 1942, the murals were pended with bold, abstract motives in contrast to the more realistic figurative styles that was then popular. In 2001 the Bolotowsky mural was conserved through the Municipal Arts Society's "Adopt and Mural" program. Working with the New York City Public Design Commission prior to demolishing the hospital, Cornell undertook an ambitious effort to rescue and restore the Bolotowsky, Swinden and Rugolo murals. Conservators were not able to location the Chinase. In congestion with the 2017 opening, the Bolotowsky and Swinden mural were installed on campus."

Group that erected the marker: Cornel Tech Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Roosevelt Island, New York, NY, USA URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   07/05/2018 bluesnote visited it