Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

New College Building Rises North of Ground Zero

By Julie Shapiro | October 4, 2010 7:54am

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN — A new Fiterman Hall is rising just north of Ground Zero, nine years after the collapse of 7 World Trade Center heavily damaged the original.

In addition to providing the Borough of Manhattan Community College with much-needed classroom, office and lounge space, the new 14-story building also embodies a message of renewal, said Scott Anderson, a vice president at BMCC.

"To build right there is symbolically very important, because it represents continuity," Anderson said. "It’s a sign of the revitalization of New York."

BMCC, which is part of the City University of New York, had just completed an extensive renovation of Fiterman Hall when 9/11 rendered the building uninhabitable. After a lengthy demolition and a political battle over funding for the $325 million project, work on the new Fiterman Hall started late last year.

The Pei Cobb Freed-designed building will include a public cafe and art gallery on the first floor and space for the accounting, business management, computer science, ethnic studies, music and art departments above.

BMCCC’s main Chambers Street building has long been overcrowded, particularly as the college’s population swelled from 17,000 to 24,000 students in the past nine years. Computer labs often have lines out the door, professors share offices and the college has held classes in trailers along the West Side Highway.

The new building will have large classrooms with lots of natural light, Anderson said. Green features include elevators that only stop at select floors, forcing students and faculty to climb a flight or two of stairs.

Steel for the new Fiterman poked above ground over the summer and has now risen to the sixth floor. The brick cladding will arrive later this fall, and Anderson hopes to pour as much concrete as possible before the cold weather sets in.

"You’re going to see a lot more activity in about six weeks," Anderson said. "In 10 to 11 months, you’ll see the whole building up there, with the windows and everything."

Fiterman Hall’s location at W. Broadway and Park Place puts it right down the block from Park51, the planned mosque and community center.

Anderson said it could be helpful to have an educational institution in between Park51 and the World Trade Center site.

"I hope our presence in that area can be not only as an anchor, but that we can help serve as a venue of discussion," Anderson said, "to help people who are trying to understand each other’s culture, religion and prejudices."