Cornell University announced today the shortlist of six firms for the planned Cornell NYC Tech campus’s core academic building on Roosevelt Island. The six finalists, which were short listed from a leading field of 43 international firms, are Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Morphosis Architects, Steven Holl Architects, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

Each firm will now assemble a team of consultants and prepare for an interview to discuss their qualifications. Cornell plans to select and architect for the project by this April. SOM, which developed the winning tech campus proposal for Cornell, is working with the University to define an overall campus plan that will serve as a framework for all future buildings and public spaces. The plan for this building is to make it a 'net-zero’ structure, beyond which it is anticipated that future buildings on the site will achieve a LEED Silver or higher certification.

The CornellNYC Tech campus will house the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, a new type of academic enterprise, with a focus on the intersection between academia and the private sector, fulfilling Mayor Bloomberg’s vision of transforming the city into a global hub of innovation and technology commercialization.