"Topping Off" Ceremony at BCC

 
 

Photo above:(L-R) Assemblyman Nelson Castro; Jay Hershenson, CUNY senior vice chancellor and secretary of the Board of Trustees; Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson; Philip A. Berry, vice chairperson, CUNY Board of Trustees and acting chairperson of the CUNY Construction Fund; President Carolyn G. Williams; Allan Dobrin, CUNY executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer; Iris Weinshall, CUNY vice chancellor for facilities, planning, construction and management.

Bronx Community College held a "Topping Off" ceremony in celebration of its new building last Thursday, Jan. 21. 

BCC President Carolyn G. Williams, along with elected officials and CUNY staff, welcomed the construction of the North Instructional Building and Library, BCC's first new construction since its move to campus 40 years ago. 

The college has faced issues of overcrowding, and Williams cited BCC's current enrollment of 11,000 (and counting): "A new building is a necessity<" he said. "We need classroom space and we need a library - we need facilities which enable our faculty to teach and our students to learn."

The North Instructional Building and Library will be home to 15 large classrooms and a small cafe on the first floor. The second floor will house group-study rooms and lounge seating. The topmost level will have book stacks overlooking the reading room below. 

Also included in the $102 million, 98,000-square-foot building is a two-story information commons.Clerestory windows will bring in a flow of natural light and provide views of the campus, the Cloisters and the Henry Hudson Bridge.

New Library and Classrooms for BCC

Councilman Joel Rivera, BCC President Carolyn Williams, Architect Robert Stern, and Deputy Bronx BP Earl Brown (PHOTO: J. Fergusson)
Bronx Community College broke ground this morning on a $102 million building that will house a huge library, classrooms, a lounge, and more. It's being designed by Robert A.M. Stern, an esteemed architect whose work is more often associated with Yale. Construction is expected to wrap up in 2011.

The "North Instructional Building and Library" is the first academic building to be built on the campus since BCC moved in to replace New York University in 1973. Today, more than 9,000 students are pursing degrees at the college, a 30 percent increase since 2001.

"As our enrollment grew we needed a new building," said President Carolyn Williams at the groundbreaking ceremony. Not that is was easy: it took 12 years to secure the necessary funding and turn the dream into a reality.

Williams called the 98,600-square-foot building "a symbol of our commitment to provide the best for our students."

The 43-acre campus is already home to several magnificent structures, including the Gould Memorial Library (1900) and the Hall of Fame for Great Americans (1901). Both were designed by Stanford White, who was famous both in life (his other masterpieces include the New York Herald Building) and death (he was murdered).

The challenge for Stern, then, was to create something that didn't look out of place, while at the same time making it user-friendly and incorporating 21st Century "green" technology, such as high-efficiency and low-flow plumbing fixtures.

"The interior will knock the socks off people when they see it," said Stern in a statement. "On the one hand it's classical and on the other it's light and airy."

When finished, the three-story building will boast views of the Cloisters and the Henry Hudson Bridge.

An architect's rendering: Thomas Schaller for Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP