Creating an Ever-Flexible Center for Tech Innovation
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Dan Huttenlocher does not like walls. This is not so much an aesthetic preference as it is a practical concern. Walls divide people and define spaces. They restrict movement. They discourage exchange. And they are a pain to move if your needs change, especially when they are stuffed with cables, ducts and other infrastructure accessories.
Mr. Huttenlocher is certain his needs will change. As dean of Cornell Tech, a closely watched collaboration in New York City between Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Mr. Huttenlocher is overseeing the creation of an institution dedicated to technological innovation, academic experimentation and the kind of serial flexibility those two principles require.
“My goal as the dean is to create an environment where everything can be repurposed,” Mr. Huttenlocher said. He and his team are in the tenuous middle stages of planning and building exactly that: The chameleon campus, a space where interchangeability permeates everything. As Cathy Dove, Cornell Tech’s founding vice president, put it, “We want to embody the principle of iteration.”
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