Short-Term Plans Ease CU Facility Squeeze

While Manhattanville expansion looms in the distance and plans for the science building planned for the northwest corner of the Morningside campus draw nearer to completion, Columbia has taken several short-term steps aimed at increasing space on campus over the next three to five years.

Under the University's plan to increase space efficiency for Arts and Sciences, departments will be shuffled around as an increasing number of undergraduate programs move out to create more on-campus spaces.

The University made a major push to increase academic space in 2004 by purchasing the lease for two buildings from the Union Theological Seminary. Knox Hall, a residential building located on 122nd Street between Broadway and Claremont Avenues, and 80 Claremont, located on the northeast corner of 120th Street and Claremont Avenue, were converted into classroom space.

 

New School of Social Work

In 2004, when the School of Social Work moved off of the main campus into a new home at Amsterdam Avenue and 121st Street, the statistics department went with it. Various other departments had vied for the one-and-a-half floors of space in the new School of Social Work building, but the University chose statistics to free up space in the then-crowded Mathematics Hall and to encourage scholarly interaction between the statistics and social work departments.

 

80 Claremont

After a string of renovation delays, the religion department finally moved into 80 Claremont in January 2005. As with statistics, the department's lack of office space before the move had interfered with its ability to make new hires. But the new 240,000-square-foot facility offered the department 70 percent more space than it had in Kent Hall, its former home. Following the move, the regional studies departments expanded into the vacated space in Kent.

The building at 80 Claremont is also shared by Science and Technology Ventures, which handles Columbia's patents.

Science and Technology Ventures originally shared a floor with the biomedical engineering department in the Engineering Terrace, but in 2005 it moved into the newly acquired building, allowing biomedical engineering to continue the gradual expansion it has experienced over the past three years.

 

Knox Hall

In the University's most visible effort to increase space over the next three years, a newly-restored Knox Hall is expected to become the new home for the expanding economics and sociology departments. The renovations are slated for completion by the end of the 2008-2009 academic year, which, though slightly later than University President Lee Bollinger's projection in September, is close to the original schedule.

The project is currently in its design phase, which will probably continue through the fall. The move into Knox will increase departmental space by 30 percent for economics and more than 40 percent for sociology.

The space vacated by economics in the International Affairs Building will go to the political science department, which has an increasing number of faculty members, giving the department 20 percent more space. The School of International and Public Affairs will also gain new faculty offices in the building.

Meanwhile, sociology's relocation will allow the history department to expand by more than 30 percent and give the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation a new studio and faculty offices.

 

Prentis Hall: School of the Arts

After a project to convert the second level of Prentis Hall, located on W. 125th Street, into classrooms for the School of the Arts, SOA will be consolidated into just two locations: Prentis and Dodge Hall. Presently, the school's classrooms and offices are distributed across nine locations.

 

Philosophy Hall

According to Facilities Management, the relocation of the undergraduate writing program is a priority in an ongoing effort to allow for expanding space for the English department in Philosophy Hall. They are currently still in the process of reviewing several options.

 

Studebaker Hall

Studebaker, located on 132nd Street, will house 500 administrators when the first phase of renovations are completed next fall. Staff from finance, the controller's office, the budget office, and the purchasing office will also move to the building, which, though located on the proposed Manhattanville campus, can be renovated without the approvals required for the rest of the expansion plan.

The majority of the administrators will be moving from a rented facility at 1700 Broadway. Although the opening of Studebaker will reduce University expenses by cutting back on its rent payments, the building will not free up any academic space on campus.

 

Law School

At a Community Board 9 meeting this week, Columbia introduced a plan to construct a ninth floor for the Jerome Greene building, which houses the Law School. According to Program Director Sean Joyner, if approved by CB9, Construction on the new floor is estimated to begin in the summer of 2007, when disruption to faculty would be minimized. It will be completed by the fall semester of 2008. The ninth floor will add about 10,000 square feet of space to the building, increasing its area by 5 percent. It will be used for faculty offices and classrooms.