Welcome (en español)
As new fields of knowledge emerge, the nation's universities are growing to pursue the expanding missions of teaching, research, public service, and patient care. With only a fraction of the space enjoyed by our leading peers across the country, Columbia has had to face an especially critical need for space in a dense urban environment.
While Columbia is a globally respected academic center, it is also a vital local New York institution, committed to the economic, intellectual, social, and cultural vitality of our neighborhoods and city. In that spirit, together with our West Harlem neighbors, elected representatives, and civic leaders, Columbia has developed a plan for a mixed-use academic center that provides a long-term future of shared opportunity in the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone of West Harlem.
The New York City Council approved the University’s rezoning plan by a wide margin in December 2007, at the conclusion of the city’s extensive public land use review procedure. In announcing the vote, the City Council said the plan “preserves and enhances the vitality of the neighboring Harlem community, while providing new research, cultural, and other benefits to the University.”
The 17-acre site that the University will develop is just north of Columbia's historic Morningside Heights campus and consists primarily of the four large blocks from 129th to 133rd Streets between Broadway and Twelfth Avenue (see map), including the north side of 125th Street, as well as three properties on the east side of Broadway from 131st to 134th Streets.
Columbia’s comprehensive plan, limited to these blocks, moves away from past ad-hoc growth of University buildings. Gradually over the next quarter-century, this carefully considered, transparent, and predictable plan will create a new kind of urban academic environment that will be woven into the fabric of the surrounding community.
The plan includes more than 6.8 million square feet of space for teaching, research, underground parking, and support services. It features new facilities for civic, cultural, recreational, and commercial activity. And its improved, pedestrian-friendly streets and new publicly accessible open spaces will reconnect West Harlem to the new Hudson River waterfront park now under construction.
This kind of smart growth will not only generate thousands of new local jobs for a diversity of people, but also result in maintaining Upper Manhattan as a world center for knowledge, creativity, and solutions for society’s challenges.
News
Hudson Moving & Storage and Columbia University Reach Agreement
Columbia University Seeks Summer Interns in Architecture and Planning to Work on Long-Term Campus Plan
City Council Says Historic Plan Will Preserve and Improve West Harlem Character
Bollinger Statement on City Council Approval of Manhattanville Rezoning
City Council Holds Public Hearing on Proposal
City Planning Commission Acts on Proposed Expansion Plan
View a video tour of the proposed expansion site in the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone in West Harlem.