VOL. 23, NO. 3	September 19, 1997

A photo of Low Library taken on Oct. 1, 1897

By Kim Brockway and Anne Canty

  In 1987, Low Library was named to the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1996 its steps were named one of America's great public places—recognitions in keeping with the vision of former Columbia President Seth Low more than a century ago.

  "Mastering McKim's Plan: Columbia's First Century on Morningside Heights," offers a historical overview of the architectural development of the Morningside campus. "Constructing Low Memorial Library: A Chronicle of a Monumental Enterprise," includes images from the photographic campaign that meticulously documented the construction of the library. Both exhibitions are on view Oct. 8, 1997-Jan. 17, 1998. "Morningside Heights: Studio Projects for the Centennial," on view Oct. 8-Nov. 15, 1997, features recent project proposals for the campus and neighborhood by students in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Admission is free.

  Low, who played a key role in the creation of Greater New York in 1897, not only brought Columbia to the Morningside Heights site a century ago but ensured that planning and architecture would play an integral role in shaping the identity of the university. His keen sense of the monumental importance and the civic responsibility of a great university was wholly reflected in the master plan, commissioned in 1894 from Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White—the architectural firm whose architectural presence is still felt in New York in the General Post Office, the Triumphal Arch in Washington Square and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In addition to setting the tone, scale and pattern of campus development, McKim's plan established that Columbia's growth would be intertwined with the growth of the City itself.

Low Memorial Library under construction on July 26, 1896

  "Mastering McKim's Plan: Columbia's First Century on Morningside Heights" will be on view at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery in Schermerhorn Hall. Hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 1:00-5:00 P.M. This exhibition chronicles the story of McKim's master plan and its vicissitudes over the course of a century during which the vision of the City Beautiful in both architecture and urban design saw a remarkable fall from grace and return to critical reappraisal. Curators Barry Bergdoll, associate professor of art history, and Janet Parks, curator of drawings and archives at Columbia's Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, have assembled a comprehensive collection of objects that illustrate the birth of a "metropolitan university." Included are a wide range of architectural renderings and drawings—in watercolor, pencil and ink, and computer generated, archival photographs, models and personal correspondence, dating from 1890 to 1997. The exhibition is drawn primarily from Columbia's Avery Library and the Columbiana Collection supplemented with objects from the New-York Historical Society and several architectural firms.

  The exhibition begins by examining the potential of the Morningside campus. Early documents include an 1892 topographical survey of part of the grounds of what was at that time the Bloomingdale Asylum and an 1894 lithograph of one of McKim's earliest plans for the campus. Designs for Columbia's key buildings, including Low Library, Earl Hall and St. Paul's Chapel, show the campus' new domed skyline, and the plans for its pavilions and courtyards illustrate a unified architectural language for the campus.

  The exhibition continues by documenting the early evolution of the master plan through the addition of South Field and Butler Library. It includes such unrealized projects as a boulevard leading to Butler Library from W.110th St., the erection of a skyscraper over the already constructed base of University Hall, and a series of towers to be built on W. 120th St.. More recent items illustrate approaches since World War II and document the expansion that took place during the 1950s and '60s. Notable among these is a 1948 plan for a "Citizenship Center"—where students would be taught how to be patriotic Americans—developed under the leadership of former Columbia President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later became the 34th U.S. President, and I. M. Pei's proposal for two 23-story towers to be erected between Butler and Low Library. Current campus developments are represented by computer-generated renderings for Bernard Tschumi's student center, Alfred Lerner Hall, and Robert A. M. Stern's residence hall on Broadway and W. 113th St.

  The accompanying catalogue contains a comprehensive essay by Barry Bergdoll, tracing and analyzing Columbia's architectural planning on Morningside Heights. It is the narrative of the legacy and fate of McKim's 1894 master plan in the face of changing architectural, educational and urban trends.

  The 250-page publication is available in paperback for $35 or hardcover for $50.

  "Constructing Low Memorial Library: A Chronicle of a Monumental Enterprise" will be on view in Low Rotunda. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M. Exhibition curator Hollee Haswell, curator of Columbiana, has compiled enlargements of late 19th-century photographs that document the two-year construction of Low Library, the first of McKim's buildings to be constructed on the Morningside Heights campus.

  A dominant and defining architectural presence, it served as the main campus library until the mid-1930s. Now housing the University's central administration and the Visitors Center, Low Library continues today to stand as a signature for Columbia and as a tribute to the cultural and educational values on which Columbia was built. It is listed in the New York City Register of Historic Places; its steps are listed in The Lyndhurst Foundation's 1996 A Guide to Great American Public Places, by Gianni Longo.

  "Morningside Heights: Studio Projects for the Centennial" will be on view in the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery in Buell Hall, the only building on campus predating Columbia's acquisition of the land. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, Noon-6:00 P.M.

  Photographic reproductions from Abstract, published by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and original drawings, computer printouts and models, all by graduate students, will be on display. Curator is Evan Douglis, director of the Columbia Architecture Galleries.