New York state approves expansion at Columbia University

New York state officials have approved Columbia University's plan to expand its campus in New York City. The approval enables the university to use eminent domain to acquire land from holdout owners. Columbia already owns most of the 17-acre expansion zone in the largely industrial neighborhood in western Harlem, where the university’s $6.28 billion expansion plan would build a new campus over the next 25 years. To read The New York Times article, click here.

FROM DECEMBER 2007: The New York City Council has cleared the way for the largest expansion in the history of Columbia University. The university plans a $7 billion project over the next 25 years that will transform a section of Upper Manhattan now dominated by warehouses and auto body shops into a campus with glass-walled high-rise buildings, tree-lined thoroughfares and student dormitories.
Click here to read The New York Times article.

FROM SEPTEMBER 2007: The president of Columbia University in New York City and the borough president of Manhattan have reached an agreement relating to the university’s plans to expand its campus in Harlem. Columbia says it will contribute $20 million to start a fund to build affordable housing in the neighborhood, and provide additional money for local parks and playgrounds. It also promises to use environmentally friendly construction and design.
Click here to read The New York Times article.

FROM JUNE 2007: Columbia University in New York City is planning the first phase of an expansion onto a 17-acre site in West Harlem just north of its existing campus. Among the projects planned for the expansion are three new buildings: the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, Columbia Graduate School of Business, and an academic mixed-use facility known as the Lantern Building. The architects are Davis Brody Bond Aedas, Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Body Lawson Associates Architects and Planners.
To read a Columbia University news release about the project, click here.