Columbia Dedicates Part of New $6.3 Billion Manhattanville Campus

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Dozens of elected officials turned out on Monday morning as Columbia University dedicated part of its new $6.3 billion campus that will eventually cover 17 acres in the Manhattanville area. Named Manhattanville, the university unveiled the 450,000-square-foot Jerome L. Greene Science Center, which includes the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, and the 60,000-square-foot Lenfest Center for the Arts.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, former Mayor David Dinkins and City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez were among the officials at the event Monday morning as the Greene Science Center and Lenfest Center were officially dedicated. The departments will start moving in immediately, and they will open to the public in spring 2017.

The Manhattanville campus is located on the far west side between 125th Street and 133rd Street. The campus is designed to blend seamlessly the West Harlem community.

“We are creating a different kind of academic space than in the past, designed for the cross-disciplinary interaction that is crucial to new knowledge, within an open, accessible urban campus that encourages the University and community to engage with and strengthen one another,” Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger.

Renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, designed the campus.

"With the first buildings — the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, housing the Zuckerman Institute, and the Lenfest Center for the Arts — along with the University Forum and the plaza called the Small Square, you already see the essence of a campus. You have science, you have art, and you have community," Piano said. "Then, to make this a truly contemporary campus, the University and community merge. Traffic and people will move through seamlessly, without barriers. It is a campus built around the idea of shared values and of cultivating diverse approaches to life.”

Piano said he aimed to give the campus buildings an "urban layer" — meaning all the new buildings will be transparent at street level and open to the public. Many buildings will house retail and restaurant tenants to engage the community and campus.

The Manhattanville campus project will be completed in stages, starting with the Greene Science Center and Lenfest Center. The University Forum and Academic Conference Center is currently under construction with a target opening date of 2018 and the new Business School, the only building not designed by Piano, will begin construction soon, the university said.

Photo Credit: @RepJerryNadler/Twitter