In Popular Culture
- Ugly Betty was shot in 41 Cooper Square on September 23, 2009.
- The Cooper Union acts as a symbol of Progressivism in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel His Family by Ernest Poole.
- In Susan Skoog's coming-of-age independent film Whatever, precocious suburban teen Anna Stockard (Liza Weil) harbors dreams of moving to the city to study art at the Cooper Union in the early 80s.
- The Cooper Union is mentioned in a spoken word performance of Bowery Blues read by Jack Kerouac with piano accompaniment by Steve Allen.
- In the German cult film Killer Condom, the laboratory in which the villain manufactures penis-eating condom monsters is located in the basement of the school. One of the final scenes was shot outside the Foundation building entrance.
- The Cooper Union and their student dorms were featured as background in The Interpreter starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. The school is also frequently seen in episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as Law and Order: Criminal Intent.
- The Cooper Union makes an appearance in the Norwegian children's television program Lillys Butikk as the school of the lead character's son John, in his video-letter home.
- The school appeared in an episode of The Office, and was mentioned in an episode of Will & Grace in which Grace has an intern from the Cooper Union.
- A baby grand piano which appeared on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, Florida in January 2011 turned out to be part of a plan for a student who hoped to get into Cooper Union.
- A 2011 commercial for IBM was filmed inside 41 Cooper Square.
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