22 Facts About Cooper Union

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City.

Peter Cooper Union founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported Ecole Polytechnique in France.

Cooper Union originally offered free courses to its admitted students, and when a four-year undergraduate program was established in 1902, the school granted each admitted student a full-tuition scholarship.

Cooper Union was one of very few American institutions of higher learning to offer a full-tuition scholarship – valued at approximately $150, 000 as of 2012 – to every admitted student.

Cooper Union has historically been one of the most selective colleges in the United States, with an acceptance rate typically below 10 percent.

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Cooper Union was founded in 1859 by American industrialist Peter Cooper, who was a prolific inventor, successful entrepreneur, and one of the richest businessmen in the United States.

Cooper Union was a workingman's son who had less than a year of formal schooling, and yet became an industrialist and inventor.

Cooper Union designed and built America's first steam railroad engine, and made a fortune with a glue factory and iron foundry.

Cooper Union was a principal investor and first president of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, which laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable, and once ran for President under the Greenback Party, becoming the oldest person ever nominated for the office.

Cooper Union's dream was to give talented young people the one privilege he lacked: a good education from an institution which was "open and free to all.

Originally intended to be named simply "the Union", the Cooper Union began with adult education in night classes on the subjects of applied sciences and architectural drawing, as well as day classes primarily intended for women on the subjects of photography, telegraphy, typewriting and shorthand in what was called the college's Female School of Design.

Since 1859, the Cooper Union has educated thousands of artists, architects, and engineers, many of them leaders in their fields.

Cooper Union's Foundation Building is an Italianate brownstone building designed by architect Fred A Petersen, one of the founders of the American Institute of Architects.

Cooper Union evolved over time into its current form, featuring schools in architecture, fine art, and engineering.

In September 1992, Cooper Union opened its Student Residence Hall, located across 3rd Avenue from the Foundation Building, as the school's first-ever on-campus housing resource.

In 2016, in response to two years of pressure from the student body, Cooper Union "de-gendered" its bathrooms, removing all "Men" and "Women" signs and making them all gender-neutral.

In contrast to the Foundation Building, 41 Cooper Union Square is of modern, environmentally "green" design, housing nine above-ground floors and two basements.

In 2010, 41 Cooper Union Square became the first academic and laboratory structure in New York City to meet Platinum-level LEED standards for energy efficiency.

Irwin S Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union offers a five-year NAAB accredited program established by John Hejduk.

The Cooper Union is committed to the principle that an education in the liberal arts provides the ethical, social and humanistic framework crucial to personal development and professional excellence; thus, all students in the first two years take a core curriculum of required courses in the humanities and social sciences.

Cooper Union has developed an athletic program which fields teams in basketball, volleyball, and soccer.

Awards received by Cooper Union alumni include one Nobel Prize in Physics, a Pritzker Prize, fifteen Rome Prizes, 26 Guggenheim Fellowships, three MacArthur Fellowships, nine Chrysler Design Awards, three Emmy Awards, one Tony, one Grammy, one Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, and three Thomas Jefferson Awards for Public Architecture, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Architects.