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Columbia Rips Down Trees to Make Way for Inwood Athletic Complex

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

INWOOD — Columbia University has already started tearing down trees with a backhoe to make way for its new Baker Field complex, to the dismay of some residents.

Locals passing the construction site Wednesday said that they understood that demolition work was necessary to make way for the 47,700-square-foot, five-story building on 218th Street and Broadway, but were shocked that the trees were toppled without an attempt at preservation.

"It was the brutal way these beautiful creatures have been ruthlessly hacked off, distorted, destroyed torn apart, broken down," Inwood resident Ruth Dodziuk-Justitz wrote in an email after taking cell phone photos of a backhoe knocking down several trees Monday morning. "No mercy, no respect. Demolition at work."

School officials said the trees had to be removed to clear space for the new complex, which they hope will earn the eco-friendly LEED-certification, but residents said the manner in which the trees were removed was symbolic of the school's disregard for the environment, and for Inwood.

Renderings of Columbia's planned building originally featured the large growth of trees to the west of the structure leading many to believe the few trees there would remain.

"It's a big mistake to cut these healthy trees (for everyone involved, especially Columbia)," read a letter by an Inwood resident addressed to the school and posted on a local parenting email list.

The letter goes on to mention that young new saplings would take at least 25 years to "develop into the kind of shade providing, air-cleaning, and beautiful-looking trees like the ones on the current Baker Field construction site."

The author called on the school to take care in removing the trees, which would showcase the school's "progressive mindset, not the same-old-same-old development thinking that obliterates gorgeous, large and beneficial trees in favor of small, token ones."

Columbia officials said they understood community concerns, but stressed that the trees were in an area that had to be cleared to make way for the Campbell building and that the entire Baker Field project, including the public waterfront access will see 33 new trees planted by the school by completion in the fall 2012.

After consultation with certified arborists and other tree experts, the school determined "keeping these trees in their current locations would not only irreparably damage the trees, but also create hazardous conditions for people walking around and under them," Columbia spokeswoman Victoria Benitez said in an email statement.

As for the method of removal, the school chose to remove them by backhoe instead of chopping them down piece-by-piece because it was faster and quieter than other options, Benitez said.

"These trees were removed in an expeditious manner using machinery to minimize impact to the community rather than a loud, multi-day method of cutting down the trees in parts with chainsaws," Benitez said.

"Once construction is complete, a new, more appealing landscape will be created around the site, including the planting of new trees that are more suitable to an urban setting," she wrote.

Columbia recently agreed to a series of benefits for the Inwood community as a concession for building on its land without turning over the normally required 15 percent of the space for public use. Instead, Columbia will set aside just 1.5 percent of its property for public use.

Columbia officials met with the Inwood community to discuss pre-construction issues at the Baker Field site in late April 2011.
Columbia officials met with the Inwood community to discuss pre-construction issues at the Baker Field site in late April 2011.
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DNAinfo/Carla Zanoni