NYU on the `CUSP’ of MetroTech launch

November 27, 2012 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) Tuesday announced that it will launch its inaugural programs and host its first class of 50 students at MetroTech. 

With construction beginning now on approximately 26,000 square feet of space in 1 MetroTech Center, CUSP will occupy the MetroTech space, leased to the University by Forest City Ratner,  as NYU continues to transform the former Metropolitan Transit Authority facility at 370 Jay St. into its permanent home.

CUSP’s facilities at MetroTech and 370 Jay St. – which will eventually total more than half a million square feet – will build on NYU’s existing presence in Brooklyn, which includes NYU-Poly, by bringing together global leaders of science, technology, and education.

CUSP, one of the winning proposals submitted in response to the City’s Applied Sciences NYC initiative, will, at full strength, include 50 researchers and faculty members from universities and private industry, along with more than 400 master’s degree students and 100 Ph.D. candidates.

“The innovative faculty and students at CUSP will set out to tackle urban challenges and bring innovative solutions to a world market, and it’s only appropriate that we begin shaping these ideas in Brooklyn – one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in the world,” said Steven Koonin, director of CUSP.

“With NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, Brooklyn will further cement its status as ‘College Town, USA’ — with more college students than even Cambridge, Massachusetts,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz.

“In a few short years NYU has made a very strong impression on the Downtown Brooklyn area,” said MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president for Forest City Ratner Companies.
 
“Already known as New York City’s Collegetown, Downtown Brooklyn will be forever changed by the commitment that NYU is making here today,” said Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

Features of the center’s immediate space at 1 MetroTech include:

Eighty-three offices and workstations for faculty, visiting industrial researchers, administrators and staff.

Four easily reconfigured collaborative spaces at the corners of the building that give everyone working at CUSP access to views of the city they are studying.

Two large visualization labs which will allow researchers to gain insight and understanding of large urban data sets.
An electronics lab for the design and fabrication of low-cost hardware that collects urban data.   
         
NYU has completed its assessment of 370 Jay St., and full construction will take an estimated five years. The city and NYU plan to transform 370 Jay St. into CUSP classrooms, offices and laboratory space.

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