Institute of Sustainable Design Events

The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design

Professor Bone was appointed founding Director of the Institute in the summer of 2009, advocating for the creation of this program in order to increase student, faculty and community exposure to the issues of sustainability. The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design seeks to assist Cooper Union in providing architects, engineers and artists with the cross-disciplinary knowledge and the practical skills that they will need to successfully meet the professional and personal challenges of creating a sustainable society. The Institute cooperates with the larger intellectual and civic community to increase social dialogue and develop architectural and engineering systems to address current issues of sustainability. The Institute has won numerous grants, supported independent research and organized and produced public programming and exhibitions related to environment and sustainability.

  • 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.