C U
 M H
A Framework for Planning
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
CHAPTER 1 - CAMPUS HISTORY
CONTENTS
1.1
Charles McKim and the Design of Columbia . . . . . . . 1.2
1.2
Campus Development in the 1920s and 1930s . . . . . . 1.7
1.3
Postwar Development: On Campus and Off . . . . . . . 1.11
EXHIBITS
1-1
Campus Plan, 1903. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5
1-2
Growth of the Campus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.8 - 1.9
1-3
Campus Plan, 1967. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.12
Chapter 1 – Campus History
1.1
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
CHAPTER 1 –
CAMPUS HISTORY
Columbia University is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York State, established by royal
charter as Kings College in 1754. After occupying
space at Trinity Church for six years, the college
moved to its own building at Church Street and Park
Place in Lower Manhattan in 1760. As New York City
grew in size and population, the college outgrew this
campus. In 1856, Columbia’s trustees voted to purchase the former Deaf and Dumb Asylum on Madison
Avenue between East 49th and 50th streets and on
May 7, 1857, the school relocated into the asylum’s old
buildings. Between 1878 and 1883, several prominent
new structures were erected on the midtown site. Even
though the college now had a series of distinguished
new structures, its curriculum remained traditional.
In fact, affluent New Yorkers, including many trustees,
chose to send their sons to colleges and universities
outside of New York.
In October 1889 Seth Low became president of Columbia. Low was a graduate of Columbia, head of the
alumni association, a former mayor of Brooklyn, and
a leading advocate of progressive reform in New
York. It was under Low’s leadership that the college
began its metamorphosis into a vibrant, modern
academic institution. Low was anxious to remove the
college from its cramped site on Madison Avenue and
East 49th Street. In 1892, Columbia’s trustees agreed
to pay New York Hospital $2 million for the four
blocks located between 116th and 120th streets and
Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway on Morningside
Heights.
Low had no preconceived notion of what type of design was appropriate for new college buildings, but he
was anxious to create a complex that would provide
Columbia with a physical presence that was equal to
its increasing significance as an intellectual center.
His dream was to be tempered, however, by the fact
that Columbia had little money to actually build the
new campus. The trustees sought the advice of prominent architects and carefully planned the campus so
that it could be developed over time. The result was
one of the great architectural ensembles of the late
19th century.
1.2
1.1 CHARLES MCKIM AND THE
DESIGN OF COLUMBIA
In November 1893 the firm of McKim, Mead &
White was officially appointed Columbia’s architect,
with Charles McKim the partner in charge of the project. The firm was to plan the campus and would design the new buildings so long as a specific donor did
not request that another architect be engaged for a particular project. McKim worked closely with Low to
plan a campus that would efficiently utilize the limited space on Columbia’s new site and create an architectural complex that at once reflected the academic
and civic aspirations of the university. On October 1,
1894, the trustees approved the plan that became the
framework for Columbia’s development.
McKim proposed a campus that focused on a monumental classical library modeled on the Pantheon, the
greatest of all surviving ancient Roman buildings. The
building demanded an equally grand approach, and
McKim planned a broad paved entrance court, known
as South Court, resembling the plazas of European
cities. Stairways leading from the court would bring
people up to the platform on which the college buildings would be erected. A final long stairway would lead
to the entrance to the library. Set in the center of the
stairway leading from the plaza to the campus level
would be an allegorical statue representing Columbia.
The library was to be balanced by three individually designed secondary structures. To the east would be the
chapel, to the west a student assembly hall, and to the
north, University Hall, a combined memorial hall, refectory, and academic theater set on top of the University’s gymnasium and power plant. East and west of the
library would be four intimate courts or quadrangles.
Building Columbia: The First Phase
With the plan completed, Low and Columbia’s trustees
could turn their attention to raising money so that construction could begin. From the very start of planning
for the new campus it was clear to the trustees that
buildings would be erected only as funds became
available and that construction would take many years.
A decision was made to begin construction with the library, University Hall, and four classroom buildings at
the north end of the plan. Columbia had the money to
begin work on the infrastructure of the campus and to
Chapter 1 – Campus History
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Before construction could
begin, the Columbia trustees
had to resolve one outstanding issue — what materials
should be used for the building facades? After much deMcKim, Mead & White’s Campus Plan, 1894.
bate, the trustees decided
that the library alone would
be limestone (with a granite
base), while the subsidiary buildings would be red brick
ing was erected in 1900 but was demolished in the early
trimmed with limestone. The type of brick was ex1960s for Uris Hall).
tremely important, and Low and McKim spent a great
deal of time choosing brick of the correct color and
On October 4, 1897, Low’s dream of removing Cotexture, finally settling on a hand-pressed, dark-red Harlumbia from its cramped midtown campus to a new
vard brick. Work was soon under way on the library,
complex of monumental buildings was fulfilled. At a
South Court, four classroom buildings, the powerhouse,
cost of $6,879,011.90, the library, four classroom
and the gymnasium. Only University Hall remained unbuildings, a gymnasium and power plant, an impresbuilt, since the alumni were never able to raise the funds
sive entrance court, and the necessary infrastructure
necessary for its construction (a small piece of the buildwere completed and classes began.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
1.3
HARPER’S WEEKLY, NOVEMBER, 1894
erect two of the classroom
buildings (Fayerweather
and Engineering, now
Mathematics). The alumni
were expected to pay for
University Hall, and funds
for the library and remaining two classroom structures would have to come
from private donations. The
library was seen as the crucial feature of the plan and
no other construction would
begin until this building was
funded. In the spring of
1895, board chairman
William C. Schermerhorn
gave $300,000 for a natural
science building (Schermerhorn Hall), and Seth
Low announced that he
would personally give Columbia up to one million
dollars to build the library
as a memorial to his father,
Abiel Abbot Low. A year
later, members of the Havemeyer family donated funds
for the fourth classroom
building (Havemeyer Hall).
COLUMBIANA COLLECTION
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Columbia University, c. 1898.
Columbia Grows
Seth Low remained Columbia’s president for four years
after the move to Morningside Heights. During that period two significant additions were made to the campus
— Daniel Chester French’s Alma Mater statue on the
stairs overlooking South Court, and Earl Hall, the student assembly hall that rose to the west of Low Library.
When Earl Hall was dedicated on March 8, 1902, Columbia had a new president, Nicholas Murray Butler,
who would guide the University through two major periods of expansion, separated by a building hiatus during World War I. A major problem that Butler faced
upon becoming president was the issue of the expansion
of the campus onto surrounding property. The four
square blocks of the campus provided Columbia with
only limited room for expansion. The University was
also concerned about the character and quality of potential development on surrounding vacant land, especially that to the south, which was still owned by New
York Hospital. Early in 1902, New York Hospital informed Butler that its property from 114th to 116th
streets, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, was
on the market. Butler was determined to acquire the
property and agreed to pay $1,900,000, almost the price
1.4
that Columbia had paid for twice the area approximately
ten years earlier.
In 1903, McKim, Mead & White was asked to prepare
a master plan for the development of South Field, which
was to become the center of the undergraduate college
and was to include a significant number of dormitories.
The decision to build dormitories on South Field ended
a long and often bitter argument over whether Columbia should become a residential college, as many of the
trustees and alumni wished, or whether it should be a
commuter college, as Low advocated, with students returning to a life in the city each day after classes.
McKim, Mead & White proposed that the design and
layout of the new property echo that of the original
campus. Classroom buildings would rise along the
south side of 116th Street at the corners of Broadway
and Amsterdam Avenue, mirroring those planned for
the north side of the street. A court would occupy the
center of the 116th Street frontage, echoing South
Court. On the east and west sides of the property would
be quadrangles, each composed of the classroom building on 116th Street and five dormitories. The disposition of the south side of the field, facing Low Library,
was left undetermined.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
McKim, Mead &
White’s Plan for
South Field, 1903.
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Campus
Plan, 1903
Exhibit 1-1
Chapter 1 – Campus History
1.5
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
South Field, c. 1915.
The announcement that Columbia would buy South
Field coincided with a $300,000 gift from Helen Hartley Jenkins and her nephew Marcellus Hartley Dodge
for construction of a dormitory. Along with this gift,
the trustees committed themselves to erecting a second residence hall. McKim, Mead & White were
asked to design the pair, to be known as Hartley Hall
and Livingston Hall (now Wallach Hall), which would
rise along Amsterdam Avenue on South Field. Both
opened in 1905, transforming Columbia into a residential college. These dormitories were joined in
1912 by Furnald Hall, erected along Broadway, immediately across from Hartley.
The Hartley Hall donation was the first of a series of
substantial gifts that Columbia received for new buildings from wealthy New Yorkers in the early 20th century. This permitted Butler to oversee the construction
of the three dorms, St. Paul’s Chapel (1903-7), the
School of Mines (now Lewisohn Hall, 1904), Hamilton Hall (1905-7), Kent Hall (1909-11), Philosophy
Hall (1910-11), Avery Hall (1911-12), President’s
House (1911), and Journalism Hall (1912-13).
McKim, Mead & White designed all of these buildings
with the exception of the chapel (I.N. Phelps Stokes of
1.6
the firm of Howells & Stokes) and the School of Mines
(Arnold Brunner). In addition, smaller donations, including many class gifts, provided Columbia with
gates, statues, bronze lamps, stone pylons, a sundial in
the form of a dark green granite sphere, and other ornamental embellishments. President Butler not only
expanded Columbia’s campus to the south but, in several transactions in 1910 and 1914, also purchased the
block bounded by West 116th and 117th streets, Morningside Drive, and Amsterdam Avenue, comprising
half of today’s East Campus. This was initially planned
as the site of Columbia’s medical school, but this school
eventually affiliated with Presbyterian Hospital and
erected a new complex on West 168th Street in Washington Heights.
In the early 20th century, Charles McKim spent less and
less time working on Columbia projects. With the basic
design scheme complete, he left much of the actual
work to William Kendall, who became a partner at
McKim, Mead & White in 1906. In addition, McKim’s
health was declining. He was forced to retire on January 1, 1908, and died the following year. With McKim’s
death, Kendall became Columbia’s chief designer.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
1.2 CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT
IN THE 1920s AND 1930s
With the completion of work on Journalism and Furnald in 1912, no new construction occurred until
1923. In the 1920s, President Butler began planning
for a major expansion of campus facilities. Many of
Butler’s schemes were quite grandiose and proved to
be too expensive for Columbia. Nonetheless, several important buildings were erected during the 1920s,
and Butler’s entire building program culminated with
the design and construction of a mammoth new library on South Field.
The 1920s also witnessed the failed scheme to erect an
enormous Students Hall on the south side of South
Field, opposite Low Library. In 1922, McKim, Mead
& White designed a building that included an assembly hall, dining room, gymnasium, club rooms, and
other undergraduate facilities. The scheme was far too
expensive for Columbia, but it established a precedent for the design of a monumental building that
would separate the campus from the city to the south.
With the failure of this project for a Students Hall, Butler decided to erect a building that combined needed
dormitory space with some of the spaces planned for
the student building. Thus, John Jay Hall was built on
the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 114th Street in
1925-27.
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The first postwar project was the construction of the
School of Business (now Dodge Hall) on the north
side of 116th Street at Broadway. This proved to be
the last of the classroom buildings on McKim’s original plan that was built, although the McKim, Mead &
White firm did prepare drawings for Pierce Hall, which
was to complete the quadrangle formed by Havemeyer, Engineering, and Earl. Butler formulated grand
plans for construction on the north end of the campus,
a landscaped area known as the Grove, that had been
set aside by Low and McKim for future development.
Most of this work was to expand science facilities. Ex-
tensions were proposed for Havemeyer and Schermerhorn halls, a Chemical Engineering Building was
planned for the corner of Broadway and 120th Street,
and an especially impressive scheme proposed the construction of five buildings on 120th Street—tall, thin
corner towers, a large central structure with a pyramidal roof, and bulky intermediary buildings. Of these
proposed structures, only the extensions to Havemeyer (Chandler Hall) and Schermerhorn and one of the intermediary buildings, a physics laboratory known as
Pupin Hall, were ever erected.
McKim, Mead & White’s proposal for West 120th Street, c. 1926.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
1.7
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
W. 120TH ST.
Lewisohn
W. 116TH ST.
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
St. Paul's
Buell
Relocated
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
Buell
Earl
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
Low
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
Fayerweather
BROADWAY
Mathematics
Schermerhorn
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
Univ.
Hall
Base
Only
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
BROADWAY
Havemeyer
W. 120TH ST.
W. 116TH ST.
Hamilton
Hartley
Livingston
(currently known as Wallach)
1900
1907
BROADWAY
W. 120TH ST.
Growth of
the Campus
W. 116TH ST.
Butler
Exhibit 1-2
1.8
1935
Chapter 1 – Campus History
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
W. 120TH ST.
W. 120TH ST.
Pupin
Chandler
Scherm.
Ext.
Kent
Dodge
President's House
W. 116TH ST.
Casa
Italiana
Faculty
House
Johnson
(currently known
as Wien)
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
BROADWAY
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
Philosophy
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
BROADWAY
Avery
W. 116TH ST.
Journalism
Furnald
John Jay
1915
1929
W. 120TH ST.
Computer Science
W. 120TH ST.
Mudd
Schapiro
Fairchild
College Walk
W. 116TH ST.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
East
Campus
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
Int. Affairs
W. 116TH ST.
Carman/
Ferris Booth
1965
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
BROADWAY
Bridge
Greene
MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
BROADWAY
Uris
AMSTERDAM AVENUE
Have. Ext.
Lerner (under construction)
1998
1.9
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Building also expanded on East Campus where only
President’s House had been erected. Faculty House
was erected in 1923 just north of President’s House,
and in 1924 work began on Columbia’s first women’s
dormitory, Johnson Hall (now Wien Hall). In 1926-27,
McKim, Mead & White’s Casa Italiana rose to the
north of the East Campus block, on the northeast corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 117th Street.
COLUMBIANA COLLECTION
By the end of the 1920s, the University still had one
especially pressing need — a new library to replace
Low Library, which was hopelessly overcrowded. Butler suggested completing University Hall as a library,
but when this proved to be impossible, he turned his
sights to South Field, where he had once proposed to
build a Students Hall. Butler hoped to persuade Edward Harkness, heir to one of the great Standard Oil
fortunes, to fund the new library and even hired Harkness’s favorite architect, James Gamble Rogers, thus
ending McKim, Mead & White’s tenure of over 35
years as architect for Columbia. Harkness agreed to
build a library, to be known as South Hall (later Butler Library), and Rogers designed a structure with a
large footprint. Rogers adapted features of McKim,
Mead & White’s Students Hall design, creating a
rather static Classical Revival building.
Johnson Hall, now Wien Hall, 1925.
NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
Butler Library, 1934.
1.10
With the completion of South Hall in 1934, a major
phase of Columbia’s development was complete. On
the original campus the library, assembly hall, chapel, and nine of the twelve
proposed classroom buildings had
been erected; on South Field, the two
classroom buildings and four of the
planned residence halls were built.
Construction of the inner rows of
dorms had never been seriously considered by Columbia, and the construction of Butler Library, which
extended far out into the athletic field,
made construction of at least two of
these dorms impractical. Sites for new
development on the historic campus
were now limited, and when Columbia’s trustees began to consider building again after World War II, they had
to look toward the Grove at the northern edge of the campus, toward East
Campus, and toward off-campus sites
for room for additional construction.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Design for Ferris Booth Hall and Carman Hall, 1956.
Several projects changed the character of the main
for the buildings that Columbia erected on Morningcampus in the 1950s and 1960s. The least costly, yet
side Heights between 1895 and 1927.
most significant, was the acquisition in 1953 of the
right-of-way along 116th Street for $1,000. The street
Extensive construction was also undertaken on East
was landscaped with simple grassy malls, increasing
Campus, where a plan was created in 1956 under the
the unity between the original campus and the southdesign guidance of Wallace K. Harrison. Harrison proern extension. In 1956-60, the first major building
posed a superblock that combined the original East
project since the completion of Butler Library was unCampus block between 116th and 117th streets with
dertaken on the campus, with construction of the Carthe block to the north. This would be Columbia’s first
man Hall dormitory on Broadway and 114th Street
major development project that entailed demolition
and the attached Ferris Booth Hall, the
student center that Columbia had long
Design for East Campus, 1956.
lacked. Both buildings were designed
by Harvey Clarkson of the firm of
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, and both
designs were widely criticized. These
two buildings were followed by two
other structures that received extensive negative commentary — the
School of Engineering’s Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Hall (Voorhees, Walker, Smith & Smith, 1961) and Uris
Hall (Moore & Hutchins), the new
home of School of Business, completed on the site of University Hall in
1964. Although none of the buildings
erected in the 1950s and 1960s seriously violated McKim’s plan, their designs did not meet the high standard
established by Charles McKim and
the firm of McKim, Mead & White
Chapter 1 – Campus History
1.11
COLUMBIANA COLLECTION
Following World War II, Columbia was in desperate
need of additional space as buildings were aging, facilities became outdated, and enrollment increased.
Columbia planned major building projects and sponsored several planning studies. These new projects
often departed in location or scale from the McKim,
Mead & White master plan and were generally of
lesser design quality than the earlier buildings.
Although many of the proposals of the 1950s and
1960s were not built, several new buildings were
erected on the historic campus, East Campus was expanded and experienced major construction, and offcampus residential buildings were converted for
institutional uses.
COLUMBIANA COLLECTION
1.3 POSTWAR DEVELOPMENT:
ON CAMPUS AND OFF
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Morningside
Heights, Inc.,
Campus
Development
Proposal, 1967
Campus
Plan, 1967
Exhibit 1-3
1.12
Chapter 1 – Campus History
AVERY LIBRARY
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Sketch of I.M. Pei proposal for buildings on South Field.
of existing housing. East Campus was planned as a
raised platform with the buildings connected to the
original campus by a bridge spanning Amsterdam Avenue between 116th and 117th streets (Revson Plaza).
The main entrances to the buildings would be from
this plaza. The first East Campus building erected
was Harrison & Abramowitz's Law School, completed in 1961. It was joined by the same firm’s School
of International Affairs in 1971, and a residence hall
designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates (facade
reclad by Gruzen Samton Steinglass after tiles became dislocated) in 1981. Unfortunately, East Campus buildings were not well received; the designs were
criticized, the platform-level entrances were not widely used (street-level service entries were generally
preferred), and the bridge turned Amsterdam Avenue
into a dark tunnel.
Chapter 1 – Campus History
During the decades following World War II, several
master plans were proposed for the expansion of the
University. In 1967, Morningside Heights, Inc., an organization formed by the area’s institutions, proposed
that the campus expand to the south, replacing all of
the residential buildings as far south as 111th Street.
Columbia, itself, proposed in 1966 to erect a library
extension on the block south of the campus, between
113th and 114th streets, and dormitories and other
residential units on the two square blocks south of
that. Although no action was taken on these proposals, in 1967 Columbia began construction on a new
gymnasium in Morningside Park that was to be the
most controversial project in the University’s history.
Construction on the gym was abandoned in 1968. In
1970, an extensive master plan for the campus was undertaken by I.M. Pei. Pei proposed a pair of high-rise
1.13
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
COLUMBIANA COLLECTION
Alexander Kouzmanoff’s Avery extension; Mitchell/
Giurgola’s award winning Sherman Fairchild Center
for the Life Sciences; the monolithic Gwathmey
Siegel dormitory; R.M. Kliment and Frances Halsband’s widely praised Computer Science Building; a
sensitive extension to Havemeyer Hall designed by
Davis, Brody and Partners; an addition and partial
refacing of Uris Hall designed by Peter L. Gluck &
Partners; and interior renovations to Schermerhorn
Hall by Susana Torre.
Sherman Fairchild Center for the Life Sciences, 1977.
towers with faculty offices and classrooms on the
South Field sites originally proposed by McKim,
Mead & White for inner rows of dormitories. A new
gymnasium would be built beneath South Field. Also
proposed were a large science center on the Grove and
an underground expansion to Avery Hall; Alexander
Kouzmanoff’s Avery extension was the only part of
this plan to have been realized.
Most aspects of the I.M. Pei plan were never seriously considered by Columbia, yet the decision to hire Pei
to undertake a master plan indicated that the trustees
were considering the quality of their design and planning initiatives. In 1972, James Stewart Polshek, dean
of the School of Architecture, became an adviser to
the University as part of this effort to improve the
quality of the architecture on campus. In the 1970s
and 1980s a significant amount of new construction
occurred, some of it far more distinguished than the
buildings of the 1950s and 1960s. Projects included
1.14
Since the completion of the major building campaign
of the 1970s and 1980s, Columbia has erected the
large scale and uninspired Schapiro Hall (Hellmuth,
Obata & Kassebaum), filling in the central section of
the Grove, and has completed two Law School projects on 116th Street (James Stewart Polshek & Partners). Columbia also erected its first large-scale
building in the heart of the residential neighborhood,
the Morris Schapiro Hall dormitory (Gruzen Samton
Steinglass) on West 115th Street between Broadway
and Riverside Drive. More recently, work began on
the Lerner Hall Student Center designed by School of
Architecture dean Bernard Tschumi (in association
with the firm Gruzen Samton) as a replacement for
Ferris Booth Hall and on a combined Law and Business School building on Amsterdam Avenue and West
115th Street, designed by the Hillier Group of Princeton, New Jersey. In addition, another residence hall
is projected for the neighborhood — a design by
Robert A.M. Stern for a site on the northeast corner
of Broadway and 113th Street.
Since relocating to Morningside Heights in 1897, Columbia has grown from a relatively small school into
a multidimensional institution of world renown. Initial construction occurred on the original campus
planned by McKim, Mead & White, but as the school
grew, construction expanded onto South Field, East
Campus, and then into the community. Since 1897,
Columbia has grown and expanded and it may grow
in the future. Columbia is challenged to commission
new buildings that live up to the early history of the
University as a patron of great architecture.
Chapter 1 – Campus History