University Administrators Break Ground at Site of K-8 School

Quietly ducking through the corridors of the free-standing Chase building and
emerging in a debris-filled courtyard, members of the University administration
broke ground on the building that will hold Columbia's new laboratory school
and faculty apartments yesterday afternoon. Held behind the iron scaffolding at
the corner of 110th Street and Broadway surrounding the demolished former
home of Mike's Papaya and D'Agastino, the ceremony congratulated the
architects, contractors, engineers, and design crews that saw the project through
more than a year of tumultuous discussions with the community.

President George Rupp, Provost Jonathan Cole, and Executive Vice President
for Administration Emily Lloyd donned hard hats along with their black suits,
bent down, and took the first shovels of what Provost Cole declared "will be a
very handsome building, which will fit very well in the neighborhood."

Though not all Morningside Heights residents agree with Cole's assertion, the
building will perhaps serve as a symbol in the neighborhood of the start of a
new era of University-community compromise.

Lloyd said one of the greatest things the University learned during the process
of making plans for the building and the school is how to work with the
community. One lesson she took from the project is the need to reach out to the
community aggressively through a series even before University development
projects begin.

Lloyd said the University was able to address many of the issues in the
construction of the 110th Street building that the community was concerned
about. In response to protests from the community, the University reduced the
height of the building, altered the faÁade to make it more congruous, and
changed traffic management at the intersection to reduce congestion.

In her speech at the groundbreaking ceremony, Lloyd described the more than
50 meetings with the community since the site was announced last fall as
"constructive," adding that the discussions led to the University "doing some
things better than before."

Cole said that even though the new Laboratory School will not be a public
school, as many community members hoped, it will help create "social
cohesion" between the University and the community because about half of the
student body will be reserved for community children, forming new links
between community members and the faculty from the neighborhood.

But one of the primary purposes of the school remains--to increase the
attractiveness of the University in a city that is not known to have the highest
quality public schools. The school is part of a larger strategy to make the
University more competitive in its ability to attract young professors, Cole
said.

Cole said housing and professors' concern about being able to provide a quality
education for their children had already cost the University in its negotiations
with two other Ivy League professors this year. He said he hopes the
experimental school will be able to address most of the faculties' concerns
about their children's education by providing a quality, affordable option for
University families.

Furthermore, the building at 110th Street is designed to enable more faculty to
live within walking distance of the University.

"One of the University's most attractive features is the number of faculty and
staff that live within walking distance of the campus," Rupp said. He called it "a
reinforcing feature because the more faculty that live within the neighborhood,
the more faculty that want to live near the campus. Columbia has more faculty
living in its vicinity than any other research university."

Another aim of the school will be to break down departmental segregation
among the faculty because, as Cole said, "children don't group themselves
according to disciplines when they make friends."

In the long run, Rupp said he believes that most people in the community will
come to appreciate the building's "contribution to the flourishing of Morningside
Heights."