04/22/2025
While one of SUNY Cortland’s central buildings, Corey Union, starts getting a facelift in 2026, a new residence hall is planned to rise for the first time in 15 years.
Chris Maroney, associate vice president for facilities management, said that the university center for conferences and student activities will receive updates slated for completion in 2028.
Other than a first floor that was renovated approximately five years ago, the rest of Corey Union will undergo a major redesign that changes the interior layout and exterior facade to make the student union brighter and more inviting.
“A new open stairway connects the lower floor dining to the main entrance floor, which is technically the second floor,” Maroney said. “We’re opening up the interior of the building with a little more of an open floor plan so students can move between different spaces and have their own private spaces that have different purposes but still be engaged in what’s going on in other parts of the building.”
Construction on Corey Union is estimated to begin in Spring 2026 and finish close to 30 months later.
Most of the Corey Union staff and offices will temporarily be moved to Cornish Hall and Van Hoesen Hall. More information will be provided closer to the renovation’s start date.
Meanwhile, a second construction project will build a yet unnamed residence hall beginning in 2026, with hopes for a soft opening to residents in the spring of 2028 and a formal opening in fall of 2028.
The new hall will be located at the intersection of Pashley and Folmer drives, near the Tompkins Street campus entrance, with a target of 200 beds set up in apartment-style rooms. It will be the first new housing for students since 2013, when Dragon Hall opened.
Maroney said that the main reason for the new building is to replace apartments on West Campus with similar style housing located on the main campus, not to add more housing than we currently have.The eventual plan is to phase out regular use of West Campus rooms entirely, with some being updated for use as backup housing when residential renovations take place on the main campus.
A decision on the location of the new residence hall was largely based on a student survey that requested proximity to the SLC and onsite parking.
“We’ve heard the students out there tend to feel more isolated from the campus, so we wanted to try to find a way to bring that housing on to the main campus proper.”
New locations to offset the parking to be lost through construction are being reviewed.
Both projects will embrace renewable energy and energy efficient design. The residence hall will be built with the infrastructure to install solar panels, and Corey Union’s new design will make it more heat efficient. For the heating Corey Union does need, Cortland decided to dig deep for a solution.
“(It) will include a new geothermal well field, which will be located at the south end of the Bowers (Hall) parking lot” Maroney said. “It will use geothermal heating and cooling ... using heat pumps and ground source heating and cooling from the well field.”
The $70 million Corey Union project is paid for through the SUNY Construction Fund at no added expense to the university. Costs for the residence hall are estimated at around $36 million, with Cortland using low interest state-issued bonds to cover construction costs that will be repaid over time through student room fees.