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AROUND THE QUADS
Proposed Faculty Residence to Include K-8
School
By Laura Butchy
The
University has announced that the 12-story faculty residence
planned for the southeast corner of 110th Street and Broadway will
include a Columbia-affiliated school for approximately 700
elementary students. The K-8 school, to be housed in four floors of
the building, will be modeled after the lab school at the
University of Chicago; 50 percent of the students will be children
of Columbia faculty and professional staff and 50 percent will come
from the community at large.
In
preliminary planning, a public or charter school was considered,
but University officials opted for an independent school instead.
In a June 28 article in The New York Times, Jonathan Cole
’64, provost and dean of faculties for Columbia, said
that many factors supported this decision, including location and
degree of University control over hiring. The article noted that
some community members have said Columbia should be strengthening
local public schools rather than competing with them by building a
separate institution. University officials responded that the
Columbia school, which is expected to help attract the best faculty
to Columbia, would seek to collaborate with nearby public
schools.
In
early planning for the building, the University hoped to maximize
space by seeking a zoning change from the City Planning Commission,
which would have allowed a building up to 20 stories. However,
after consultation with local officials and community members,
University officials decided that a 12-story building would be a
better fit within the surrounding community.
Although businesses currently located on the site, including
D’Agostino and Mike’s Papaya, will be displaced, the
new building will include ground-floor retail space, which the
University hopes will house either D’Agostino or another
market. Construction should begin in approximately one year and be
completed 18 months after groundbreaking.
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