School of Social Work Construction on Schedule

What a difference a year makes. Last winter, Columbia University administrators announced the end of a controversial five-month debate over the new location of the School of Social Work with a nearly unanimous decision to build on the corner of 122nd Street and Amsterdam.

When the decision was announced, residents were complaining that, as resident Esther Lazarson exclaimed, "Columbia [was] walking all over [them]" with its projects to bring greater academic space and residential accommodations to students and faculty.

Today, University-community relations could not be cozier.

The decision was a turning point in the relationship between the two groups, marking the beginning of a year of increased resident input in University expansion projects. Now, many residents are singing the praises of the University's recent efforts for a higher level of community involvement in the $51 million School of Social Work and the $41 million Law School Lenfest residential hall projects, both of which are located on the block bounded by 121st Street, Amsterdam Avenue, and Morningside Drive.

Excavation on Lenfest Hall began last week, and the groundbreaking for the School of Social Work will begin in July. The estimated opening date for the Law School residential hall is in the fall of 2003 and the School of Social Work will open a year later.

"Columbia University has been working excellently with the community. I am ecstatic," Community Board 9 Chairman George Goodwill said. "They [Columbia administrators] are doing everything they can to hear our concerns and address them."

The University has involved residents in forming committees to address the design, traffic and parking, construction, and retail issues of the construction projects. The committees are open to all residents and meet regularly with the University administration project team to discuss concerns and make suggestions in these areas.

As a result of the increase in communication, both residents and University officials say the School of Social Work and Lenfest Hall projects will better fit the needs of both the schools and the neighbors.

"Many of the suggestions from the community have improved these buildings," Vice President for Facilities Management Mark Burstein said. "The discussion has been open and candid, and the University has learned from it."

Among the proposals that have resulted from meetings between administrators and the neighborhood is the height reduction of both Lenfest Hall and the School of Social Work. Lenfest has already been reduced from 19 to 16 stories, rising 155 feet tall. An increase in width of the School of Social Work to balance a decrease in height from 14 to 11 stories has not yet been approved by the city government.

Burstein said the height changes benefit not only the residents by making the buildings more complementary to the other buildings on the street and improving the lighting on the block, but the changes also benefit the schools.

"The University has been able to maximize its use of the square footage that we have," Social Work Senior Assistant Dean David Yam said. He noted that larger floors allow for more flexible research space, larger classrooms, and the full-floor library planned for the building. The School of Social Work is currently housed in a converted apartment building on 113th Street with oddly shaped classrooms and inadequate space for the school's growing student population.

"For the first time since we've been in Morningside Heights, we will have an educational building that was designed to be a school. It's an incredible achievement," Yam said.

Residents have also raised several concerns regarding a possible increase in pedestrian and vehicular traffic on Morningside Drive that the increased number of residents in Lenfest Hall, which will contain 211 apartments, will bring.

"We have been desperately short of housing," David W. Leebron, dean of the Law School, told The New York Times earlier this month. "Some of [the apartments] will accommodate spouses and children."

Residents say the area has several traffic problems already, due in part to the location of Public School 36 on the block. In addition, the buildings are replacing a large parking lot on the block.

Columbia officials said they do not foresee an increase in vehicular traffic since most of the students and faculty at the Law school and the School of Social Work do not drive to work, and many commute on public transportation

Nevertheless, the traffic and parking committee has devised several proposals to help improve the condition that Burstein said "already existed in the neighborhood."

These proposals include an increase in reduced speed limit signs and pedestrian walkways, converting Morningside Drive into a one-way street, and creating angled parking on both sides of the street to increase the number of parking spaces. Administrators warned that these proposals are still in the planning stages and must be approved by both Community Board 9 and the city.

"We're not the city so we can't make the final decision. The angled parking proposal may not be feasible because we don't have the street width," Lewis said. "But these are things that the city should be doing anyway."

Burstein added that the approval of the proposals "is really about whether the community and community board want it. We're supportive of them, but it really requires total community support."

The University will begin meeting with the community retail committee in coming weeks to discuss what kinds of businesses will fill the retail space on the lower floor of the new Social Work building.