Google Donates NY Office Space to Israel’s Technion
Google is planning to provide 22,000 square feet of its New York City headquarters to the new applied science graduate school of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Google CEO Larry Page and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the partnership at a news conference on Monday at the company’s headquarters in the heart of Manhattan’s high-tech zone.
Officials at Google estimated the market value of the space, which will be provided to the joint venture between Cornell and Technion, at between $10 million and $12 million.
“This is a major step towards the fulfillment of Mayor Bloomberg’s vision to seed the city with entrepreneurs and start-ups,” said Technion president Peretz Lavie.
“We need to create a new academic model for this time and this place and this industry and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” said David Skorton, president of Cornell University. “The key, we believe, is engagement between world-class academics and companies and early-stage investors. Co-location is critical, connecting academic research and industry in sort of a mixing bowl and seeing what happens.”
Cornell and Haifa’s Israel-based Technion beat out six other bids, including one from Stanford University, based near Palo Alto, California.
“Technology continues to do more to transform lives and improve lives,” added Google’s chief executive Larry Page. “Imagine if we could double that number of people dedicated to changing and improving the world through technology.”