Office of Public Information and Communications
Columbia University
New York, N.Y.  10027
(212) 854-5573

Fred Knubel, Director of Public Information
April 25, 1996

Gary Zarr, Rubenstein Associates, (212) 843-8037

ALERT TO EDITORS: Casa Italiana to Open at Columbia

In colorful outdoor flag-raising ceremonies next Wednesday (May 1), the famed and fully rebuilt Casa Italiana at Columbia University will formally reopen.

At 11 A.M., the President of Columbia and the Italian Ambassador to the United States will raise the American and Italian flags to poles on the newly restored facade of the building at 1161 Amsterdam Avenue, near West 118th Street, an official city landmark.

University President George Rupp, Italian Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo and Columbia Provost Jonathan Cole will speak. A news conference, reception and tour of the completely renovated Casa will follow.

The 70-year-old neoclassical Florentine palazzo, originally designed by McKim, Mead and White, is the home of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, newly founded at Columbia in partnership with the Italian government. The exterior has been completed and cleaned; inside, the theater and library have been restored as period rooms while upper floors have been transformed into light-filled, glass-enclosed studios for scholars. Italian architect Italo Rota of Milan and Samuel G. White of Buttrick White & Burtis of New York designed the restoration.

You are invited to cover.

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