The Essentials

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg included a shout-out to the Cornell NYC Tech campus in his final State of the City address.

“On Roosevelt Island, we’ve set the stage for Cornell University to build an entirely new applied science and engineering campus, maybe the most exciting economic development project our city has ever undertaken,” Bloomberg said.

Fiber Science & Apparel Design students Megan Rodrigues ‘15 and Lily Wolens ‘15 are among finalists in the national City Bag Challenge by Stitch Collective. A New York City-based luxury accessory line founded by Loni Edwards ‘06, Stitch Collective accepts sketches from up-and-coming designers, chooses finalists for public voting, and produces the winning bag.

Students in FSAD 2660: Product Development, taught by Susan Ashdown, the Helen G. Canoyer Professor, sketched handbags and entered them into Stitch Collective’s national competition for an accessory practical enough for city adventures and stylish enough for the cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Voting runs until Feb. 28.

- Dani Corona ‘15

Thom Mayne, who is designing Bill & Melinda Gates Hall and the Cornell NYC Tech campus academic building, won the American Institute of Architects’ 2013 Gold Medal, one of the profession’s highest honors. Previous winners include LeCorbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Mayne, dubbed “the bad boy and angry young man of Los Angeles architecture” by The New York Times, founded Morphosis, his Los Angeles-based practice, in 1972. He has said: “I like provoking people. It’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Howard Milstein ’73 donated $2.3 million to the FDNY Foundation and the New York City Police Foundation. His gift is earmarked for first responders whose homes have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Two thousand rescue workers will receive a check of $1,000 just in time for the holiday season.

“These are the people that risk their lives to save others. They get paid something but when your life is saved, it’s invaluable. And when they get devastated, nobody helps,” Milstein told the Wall Street Journal. “I thought the best thing to do in these circumstances is send money to the first responders. I hoped that this donation might well stimulate others into giving, and I know that that has been the case.”

Visit Cornell’s Disaster Relief and Outreach page.

Seven students in Cornell’s Urban Semester program in New York City have written about the impact of living and studying in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, collected here.

Urban Semester immerses students in New York City through classes, internships and community service. Many of them work with hospitals, churches and other community agencies, which has given them a firsthand look at how Sandy affected some of Manhattan’s most vulnerable populations.

Attention birders in New York City’s five boroughs, along the south shore of Long Island and in coastal and interior New Jersey: keep an eye skyward this weekend as migrant birds pass over your area.

According to BirdCast, hawks – including American kestrel, osprey, northern harrier and sharp-shinned – will be much in evidence by Sunday, Sept. 23, in late morning and in the afternoon, and heavy bird migration will occur Sunday night.

In quiet areas, listen for flight calls of vocal migrants. In particular, pay attention to Swainson’s and gray-cheeked thrushes, white-throated, chipping and savannah sparrows, and warblers.

Earlier risers Sept. 24 will likely see movements of these nocturnal fliers.

Last night, in an informal chat with PBS’s Charlie Rose, David Skorton talked, among other things, about how Cornell won the race to build a tech campus in New York City; Cornell’s land-grant mission; how students should sample broadly at the academic buffet; Cornell’s large international student presence; student aid; and online education.

Hotel School student Karim Abouelnaga ’13 is president and co-founder of Practice Makes Perfect, a nonprofit an academic summer program in which college students supervise pairs of 4th graders and high-achieving 9th graders who serve as their tutors and role models. More than 100 NYC children will participate in PMP this summer. On Aug. 5 Abouelnaga will participate in the Central Park Triathlon. He hopes to raise $10,000 for PMP. To sponsor Abouelnaga click here.

Stream last month’s Carnegie Hall performance of the 4th movement of composer and Cornell music professor Roberto Sierra‘s Sinfonia 4, by the Nashville Symphony. Click listen icon; go hour 2 of the broadcast; Sierra’s is the second piece.