Outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Carnegie Mellon University will open the fourth new applied sciences program in New York City as a part of the Applied Sciences NYC Competition. An agreement between the City, Carnegie Mellon University and Steiner Studios will create Carnegie Mellon University’s Integrative Media Program, to be located at Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The city’s Applied Sciences NYC initiative was created to expand the city’s top-tier applied sciences and engineering campuses to help spur economic growth and increase the city’s global competiveness. The initiative offered to provide city-owned land, seed investments of city capital and the full support of the administration to universities interested in establishing or expanding applied sciences and engineering programs in New York City.
The Carnegie Mellon University Integrative Media Program will focus on research and education in film, gaming, social media and big data, interactive computing, the performing and visual arts, and urban planning. In addition to $3.5 million contributed by the city, CMU also announced an anonymous multi-million dollar gift that will go toward the establishment of the program.
“Three years ago, we announced the Applied Sciences NYC competition, with the goal of turning New York City into the world’s leading city for technological innovation,” said Bloomberg. “It has been an enormous success, and today’s addition of Carnegie Mellon – the fourth winning project – is another major victory for the future of our economy. With a home at Steiner Studios in the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard, Carnegie Mellon’s Integrative Media Program will blend technology and the arts while giving students the opportunity to learn – and work – alongside professionals in the field. When we first launched Applied Sciences NYC, we had hoped that it would attract a world-class institution. The fact that it has attracted so many world-class institutions – and that four winning projects have emerged from it – far exceeds anything we had expected, and it’s a powerful testament to the sense of optimism that people have about New York City’s future.”
CMU’s Integrative Media Program is scheduled to launch in August 2015 in a 16,000 square-foot facility at 25 Washington Avenue – a historic seven-story building recently renovated to house soundstages, photo studios, postproduction and various support spaces in addition to academic facilities. This $60 million gut renovation expands the Steiner Studios lot from 355,000 to 580,000 square feet, and from 13 to a total of 18 soundstages on an overall campus of 46 acres. In addition to the facilities at 25 Washington Avenue, CMU and Steiner Studios are developing a collaboration plan for a state-of-the-art performance capture stage and postproduction coursework at Steiner Studios.
The degrees will be offered collaboratively across CMU’s College of Fine Arts, School of Computer Science, College of Engineering and the Tepper School of Business, and include options for students to engage in semester-long, and year-long training at the Brooklyn facility after commencing study at CMU’s Pittsburgh campus. Part-time and full-time options exclusively at the Brooklyn campus are also being considered. Students may pursue these degrees as part of five-year combined Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs.
Steiner Studios opened at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 2004 as New York’s first Hollywood-style film and television production facility and is the largest such complex on the east coast. The lot is currently home to HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, The Following with Kevin Bacon, and Warner Brothers‘ The Carrie Diaries.
