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AROUND THE QUADS
Broadway Dorm Opens on
Schedule
Fewer seniors
than expected opt for first new residence hall since
1988
By Alex Sachare
The
Broadway Residence Hall, Columbia’s first new dorm since
Schapiro Hall was completed in 1988, welcomed its first occupants
this month, opening on schedule and within budget.
The
mix of residents, however, is not quite what administrators
expected. The vision was for the new dorm to be part of a
three-building senior complex along Broadway from 113th to 114th
Streets, with Hogan and Watt. But more seniors than expected have
chosen to live elsewhere, opening much of Broadway to juniors and
sophomores.
The
14-story facility contains 371 beds, 80 percent in single rooms and
the rest in doubles. According to Ross Fraser, director of
residence halls, the singles are split evenly between seniors and
juniors while the doubles are occupied by juniors with some
sophomores — meaning fewer than half the students in what was
originally projected to be a senior dorm, and which includes the
Senior Class Center on the first floor, are seniors.
Many
seniors opted for the recently refurbished Furnald, according to
Fraser, while others chose to remain in groups and went for suites
in East Campus rather than singles in Broadway.
“Seniors tend to be risk-aversive about their
housing,” Fraser noted. “I think once this [Broadway]
is more of a known quantity, the numbers will change. You’ll
see more seniors opt for it a year from now.”
The
student entrance to the Broadway Residence Hall is on 114th Street
across from the Carman Hall gates, behind Hogan. The first floor is
an expansive, nicely appointed lobby, not unlike that to be found
in an upscale hotel. There is an attractive staircase leading from
the lobby into Hogan, and the hope is to create access to Watt as
well. “Although you only have maybe 60 percent of the senior
class, it’s the largest concentration of seniors in any three
buildings and they’re all connected nicely together,”
observed Mark Burstein, vice president, facilities
management.
The
first two floors of the new building will house a branch of the New
York Public Library as well as a retail space, neither of which is
ready for occupancy. Both will have separate entrances and be
sealed off from the dormitory part of the building. Also on the
first two floors are the Senior Class Center, a computer room, four
music practice rooms and a seminar room. Student housing is on the
third through 13th floors, with separate lounges and kitchen
facilities plus four bathrooms on each floor. There are two airy
lounges on the top floor, one envisioned for meetings or other
programming and the other for more informal use.
Designed by world-renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern
’60, the Broadway Residence Hall was budgeted at $53
million, according to Burstein, and there is some money left for
contingencies. This despite the fact that Columbia had to assemble
the site, which formerly included a garage, a bank branch and a
barber shop, a process that delayed the start of construction by
two months. Also, building plans were modified after meetings
between community leaders, the architects and University officials
headed by Emily Lloyd, executive vice president for
administration. The height of the dorm was reduced from 21 to 14
stories and a tan-colored brick was chosen instead of red, so the
building will blend in better along that part of Broadway. The
entrance to the library was moved to the corner of Broadway for
greater access, and the façade of a townhouse on 113th Street
— once home to baseball legend Lou Gehrig ’25
— was incorporated in the design of the building, a process
that “worked out very successfully, I think, for all
parties,” according to Burstein.
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