In its first-ever public-private partnership for housing, Cornell University partnered with EdR—now Greystar—to replace a low-density, monolithic student housing project with a new, vibrant community designed to engage and meet the needs of the Ithaca, New York, neighborhood, including its students, university staff, local residents, and broader jurisdictions.
The new Maplewood, designed by Torti Gallas + Partners, almost triples the site’s housing density with a total of 872 beds across 444 units. The housing supply not only makes better use of the land, but also offers more safe, affordable housing options for graduate students in a small college town with an overstressed housing market.
The homes are distributed across five four-story apartment buildings, 100 townhome units, and 10 stacked flat buildings. New pedestrian pathways connect the community and its neighborhood-serving retail to the university and surrounding residential areas. The townhomes and stacked flats are located closer to the existing neighborhoods and feature vertical cladding and gabled roofs to match the scale of their surroundings. The apartment-style buildings offer a contemporary aesthetic and are located closer to the university.
Community engagement meetings revealed a strong common concern among all parties for quality, affordable housing, connected neighborhoods and communities, and sustainable development that respects the site’s natural features and reduces natural resource consumption. Every building is Energy Star certified, and the sitewide electric heat pump system, unprecedented in the Northeast, serves as a “living laboratory” for a multiyear research study at Cornell University.
