Manhattanville Planning >  Building for a Better Columbia University

Columbia University has always made its home in New York City and, for more than a century, in Upper Manhattan. We can't imagine a better place to work and learn than here, amid the unsurpassed opportunities, culture, and hospitality of our hometown and our neighborhoods. Like other New Yorkers, we take pride in our home—so much so that we include our hometown in our full name, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Today, we face a critical need for more space in which to carry out the University's mission of education, research, and service. We hope to be able to meet this need here in our community and are proposing to build a new campus in the Manhattanville neighborhood of West Harlem. Just as it would advance the University's mission, the campus also would bring benefits to our neighbors and to the city as a whole, including thousands of new jobs.

Columbia contributes to New York City in many ways. The University prepares students for leadership in an increasingly interconnected world; provides professional and continuing education to New Yorkers; attracts bright minds to New York; and helps solve health, environmental, economic, and other challenges confronting the city and the world.

Columbia also draws billions of dollars to New York City and spends most of it right here, supporting jobs and businesses throughout the city and in our neighborhoods. In our communities, Columbia provides health and legal services, supports educational and social programs, and extends technical support to local businesses. Under President Lee C. Bollinger's leadership, the University is expanding these efforts today more than ever before.

A new campus would create opportunities for Columbia to further its contributions to the community and to New York. We have consulted with our neighbors and government officials to propose a campus that would be built over 25 to 30 years. The campus would feature an open urban design, welcoming architecture, and activities that would create jobs—administrative, technical, and support positions, as well as research and teaching jobs.

The consultation process is ongoing, on both the design of the campus and ways in which the campus could benefit the community. As part of these discussions, we are exploring additional ways to tap Columbia's strengths as a research university to expand opportunity and strengthen community life. By working together in partnership and drawing on each other's strengths, community organizations, residents, and the University can build an even brighter future together.

On this Web site, we invite you to learn more about the campus proposal and the ways that it can benefit West Harlem and New York City. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions as we continue to work together to build for the future.