Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering to get a new home west of Mudd Library
By: David Campbell
Princeton University has selected the architectural firm Frederick Fisher and Partners to design a new building for the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, the university announced Friday.
The new building will be built west of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, which is on Olden Street opposite Princeton’s Engineering Quadrangle.
The three-story structure will be built on a stone and glass base, will be faced primarily in glass on all four sides, and will complement the architecture of the Friend Center for Engineering Education on Olden and William streets. Henry Cobb of the firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners of New York designed the Friend Center.
The site for the building near the Engineering Quadrangle was chosen as part of Princeton’s planning for academic "neighborhoods" in which related disciplines are grouped in proximity to one another on campus.
It also is a first step in the engineering school’s plan to add space for interdisciplinary research. The building will be in close proximity to the social sciences neighborhood that includes Wallace Hall and the Bendheim Center for Finance.
Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2007 and end in the summer of 2008, and site work could begin as soon as the spring. The building will be the focus of fundraising efforts over the next year. The new building has not yet been named.
The Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering is now housed in the E-Quad. It has experienced significant growth since it was founded in 1999, and now graduates between 45 and 50 majors each year.
In addition to the undergraduate program, the department offers master’s and doctoral programs, the university said.
Offices for department faculty members and shared offices for graduate students will run along the north and south sides of the building on all three floors.
The first floor will include a 66-seat lecture room and an undergraduate lounge. The second floor will incorporate computer studios.
The third floor will be the home of the new Center for Information Technology Policy.
The center will seek to address social issues that arise from advances in computer technology. It will bring together computer scientists and engineers with economists, sociologists and lawmakers to issue recommendations on topics ranging from ensuring the privacy of medical records to creating fair regulations for Internet phone services.
Princeton has appointed computer science Professor Edward W. Felten to oversee planning for the center and serve as its first director.
Professor Felten is an authority on computer privacy and security. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.
The center will be organized around 18-month focus areas during which Princeton will invite specialists from academia, business, government and nonprofit organizations to study, exchange ideas and make recommendations.
At the end of each project, the center will issue a report and hold a policy briefing in Washington, Princeton said.
Some fundraising will be undertaken to support the hiring of additional faculty members and the creation of a visiting-scholars program.
The center is scheduled to begin its work in fall 2006.
The creation of the center is an outcome of the strategic plan adopted by the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2004.
The plan cited a need for interdisciplinary research and a greater understanding of the impact of technology on society, the university said.
Architectural Digest named Frederick Fisher one of the nation’s top 100 designers. The Municipal Art Society of New York awarded him the Brendan Gill Prize for the redesign of the Public School 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City.
The firm is based in Los Angeles and has completed projects throughout the United States and abroad, the university said.

