Cornell Tech / Blackwell's Island Penitentiary / Goldwater Hospital / WPA-Era Murals

Cornell Tech, also, Blackwell's Island Penitentiary, also, Goldwater Hospital, also, WPA-Era Murals. . , Cornell Tech , Home of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute , 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 a $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 the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology., The first phase of the Cornell Tech campus opened in September 2017. Today, the campus's buildings are as technologically advanced and forward looking as the ideas being explored within their walls. The 12-acre site has had a storied history serving the wider needs of the city., Blackwell's Island Penitentiary , With city prisons overcrowded, construction began in 1828 for a penitentiary on what was then Blackwell's Island. Resembling a foreboding fortress, the 800-prisoner granite complex would be expanded multiple times throughout the 19th century., By the early 20th century, poor living conditions coupled with corrupt management, including two highly organized gangs, prompted the city to build a modern facility on Riker's Island and, in 1936, the prison was demolished., Goldwater Hospital , 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 patient wards with circular day rooms and curved terraces that afforded views of Manhattan and Queens. Scientists and researchers working here developed pioneering treatments on chronic illnesses, including malaria. Their work contributed significantly to combating disease during World War II., WPA-ERA Murals , The Works Progress Administration commissioned four artists , Ilya Bolotowsky, Albert Swinden, Joseph Rugolo and Dane Chanase , to paint murals in the circular day rooms at Goldwater Hospital. Completed in 1942, the murals were rendered with bold, abstract motifs, in contrast to the more realistic, figurative style that was then popular. In 2001 the Bolotowsky mural was conserved through the Municipal Art Society's "Adopt-a-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 locate the Chanase. In conjunction with the 2017 opening, the Bolotowsky and Swinden murals were installed on campus.