41 Cooper Square

In September 2009, The Cooper Union opened 41 Cooper Square, a major new institutional facility. The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis, and features state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms and studios along with conference rooms, lounges, 41 Cooper Gallery and the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium. It houses the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Louis and Jeannette Brooks Computer Center, The Herb Lubalin Study Center, The Saturday Outreach Program and provides student and teaching studios. In the fall of 2010, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded 41 Cooper Square the LEED Platinum rating, its most rigorous level of certification that acknowledges the building's array of green features which reduce energy use and enhance the environment. 41 Cooper Square is the first academic building in New York City to achieve the LEED Platinum status.

The signage was designed by Pentagram.

Read more in Architecture Daily and Architectural Record about the concept and construction of this building.

Launch 41 Cooper Square

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.