September/October 2010
Around the Quads
Campus News
MANHATTANVILLE: In a unanimous decision announced on June 24, New York’s highest court ruled that Columbia’s long-term campus plan in the old Manattanville manufacturing area may move forward as proposed. The Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling and upheld the Empire State Development Corp.’s power of eminent domain in this matter, agreed with the state’s neighborhood condition findings and strongly affirmed the project’s educational and civic purposes.
President Lee C. Bollinger said, “We are gratified by the court’s unanimous decision and look forward to moving ahead with the long-term revitalization of these blocks in Manhattanville that will create thousands of good jobs for New Yorkers and help our city and state remain a global center of pioneering academic research.”
Infrastructure work in the area is ongoing. The first phase of the project, scheduled for completion beginning in 2015, will include the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, for research with implications for the treatment of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases; new homes for the Business School, SIPA and the School of the Arts. Later phases, expected to be completed around 2030, will emphasize interdisciplinary scholarship, including biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, systems biology and urban and populations studies as well as housing for graduate students and faculty.