The Milstein building will house the university's College of Architecture, Art and Planning, and the new building will cost about $ 34 million.
In addition to the auditoriums, workshops and office space, the structure will include the existing Sibley Corps and the Rand Corps, which were supposed to be demolished according to the plans of Koolhaas' predecessors. Construction is due to start in 2007.
The new building was conceived back in 1994, when New York philanthropist Paul Milstein allocated $ 10 million for the construction. In 2001, Stephen Hall was announced as the winner of the relevant architectural competition. His project was supposed to cost the university $ 25 million. In 2002 Hall was replaced by the Berlin studio Barkow Leibinger Architects, but they did not last long either.
In a sense, this order can be seen as the return of Koolhaas to Cornell University: after graduating from the London School of the Architectural Association in 1972, he received a Harknes Grant and spent a year at this American university, studying with O. M. Ungers.
