The Chrysler Building has a new future — and so does the art school that owns the ground beneath it. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art has finalized a 150-year ground lease with commercial developer Tishman Speyer and its investment partners in a deal worth $235 million. Cooper Union has owned the land under the Manhattan icon since 1902, when industrialist Peter Cooper's children granted it to the school as a permanent source of financial support. The college says the new arrangement will fund its plan to restore full-tuition scholarships for every undergraduate by 2028. Students currently receive half-tuition scholarships worth $22,275 a year, with additional aid based on need and merit. Tishman Speyer, joined by PSP Investments and other institutional partners, takes over a landmark that has fallen on hard times. The 77-story Art Deco tower, the world's tallest when completed in 1930, has suffered years of neglect, with vacancy rates approaching 40 percent and rent escalations that drove out previous leaseholders. The developer, which bought and renovated the building in the 1990s before selling in 2008, plans an extensive overhaul: restoring the facade and its illuminated crown, redesigning more than three-quarters of the interiors as high-end offices, and converting the 61st floor — home to the famous gargoyles — into amenity space. For Cooper Union, the deal closes a chapter of financial strain and returns the school to the tuition-free model that defined it for more than a century — a homecoming for an institution whose land gift was always meant to keep education free.