At Columbia’s newly opened Northwest Corner Science Building, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg launched the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center, an initiative to promote the development and commercialization of green building technologies in New York City.

 

The center, led by a partnership with Columbia University, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the City University of New York (CUNY), will connect scientific research with companies creating the associated products, and building owners who will use those technologies. Through the center, green building technology companies that need real-world test sites will be joined with building owners looking to benefit from the latest developments and willing to provide a test environment.

 

Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and its Center for Technology, Innovation, and Community Engagement will manage and operate the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center.

 

“We will never meet the ambitious carbon reduction goals in PlaNYC unless we reduce the emissions from New York’s one million existing buildings,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “By bringing together New York City’s business innovators, academics and building owners, the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center will capitalize on some of our City’s greatest strengths, creating jobs and helping realize our vision of a greener, greater New York.”

 

In addition to Mayor Bloomberg, event speakers included: Columbia University Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin; Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky; NYU-Poly President Jerry M. Hultin; CUNY Vice Chancellor for Research Gillian Small; IBM Senior Researcher Jane Snowdon; and Trinity Real Estate President Jason Pizer.

 

To read the complete press release, please visit the NYC.gov website.