Carman Hall

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Carman Hall
Columbia University (5678520550).jpg
Columbia University campus in 1994, with Carman Hall on the right side of the image, situated behind the now demolished Ferris Booth Hall.
Carman Hall
Former namesNew Hall
General information
Address545 West 114th Street, New York City, New York
Named for Harry J. Carman
Opened1959
Owner Columbia University
Technical details
Floor count13
Floor area157,483 square feet
Design and construction
Architect(s) Shreve, Lamb & Harmon

Carman Hall is a dormitory located on Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus and currently houses first-year students from Columbia College as well as the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. [1]

Contents

History

The building, originally named New Hall, [2] broke ground in 1957 along with an adjacent student center called Ferris Booth Hall, which was later demolished to make way for Alfred Lerner Hall. [3] The building was designed by Harvey Clarkson of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, which designed the Empire State Building. [4]

The building opened in 1959 to the all-male undergraduates of Columbia College. However, the aesthetics of the building along with other buildings constructed during Grayson L. Kirk's tenure was criticized by students, faculty, and critics alike, including Jacques Barzun, Andrew Dolkart, Barry Bergdoll, and Ada Louise Huxtable. [5] [6] Architecture critic Allan Temko noted that the building's long hallways and pattern of two double rooms with a shared bath resembled a “Victorian reformatory” and its lounge “a bus station with Muzak.” [7] In 1962, Temko again criticized Carman as "dull and bureaucratic... [with] skimpy and unimaginative detail." [8] Dean of the Yale School of Architecture Robert A. M. Stern, who graduated from Columbia a year after the building's completion, wrote in an unpublished piece that "[Carman and Ferris Booth Halls] are unfortunately mediocre in their conception." [9]

After the building broke ground, a informal naming contest was organized by the Columbia Daily Spectator , with the "serious" category winner suggesting the building be named after dean Herbert Hawkes and the "humorous" category suggesting it to be named after Aaron Burr, as a counterpart to Hamilton Hall, at the opposite end of campus. However, neither name was endorsed by the university. As a placeholder, it was referred to as New Hall until it was finally named Carman Hall in 1965, in honor of Harry Carman, who served as dean of Columbia College from 1943 to 1950. [10] [11] [12]

In November 2021, Carman Hall was evacuated after bomb threats surfaced on Twitter claiming that improvised explosives have been placed in the building. [13] [14]

Notable residents

The building frequently served as the residence of the protagonist in Paul Auster's works, including 4 3 2 1 and Winter Journal ; in the latter he describes Carman as "an austere environment, ugly and charmless, but nevertheless far better than the dungeonlike rooms to be found in the older dorms." [39] [40] A section of the Ben Coes novel, First Strike, was also set in the building. [41] The building was also referenced in Christopher John Farley's young-adult novel, Zero O'Clock. [42]

In his memoir, Photographs of My Father, Paul Spike notes that "not a trace of style ruins the ugly face of Carman Hall." [43]

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References

  1. ↑ Fishburn, Alice; Nemecek, Anthony (2005). Uni in the USA: The UK Guide to US Universities. Lucas Publications Ltd. ISBN   978-0-9532659-7-8.
  2. ↑ "Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  3. ↑ Stern, Robert A. M. (2022-03-08). Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture. The Monacelli Press, LLC. ISBN   978-1-58093-589-0.
  4. ↑ Dolkart, Andrew S. (2001-03-15). Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development. Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-07851-1.
  5. ↑ McCaughey, Robert (2003-10-22). Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University. Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-50355-6.
  6. ↑ Bergdoll, Barry; Haswell, Hollee; Parks, Janet; Library, Low Memorial; White, McKim, Mead & (1997). Mastering McKim's Plan: Columbia's First Century on Morningside Heights. Miriam and Ira Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University. ISBN   978-1-884919-04-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Huxtable, Ada Louise (1966-11-05). "Expansion at Columbia; A Restricted Vision and Bureaucracy Seen as Obstacles to Its Development Expansion at Columbia". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  8. ↑ Huxtable, Ada Louise (1968-05-20). "Strike at Columbia Architecture School Traced to Anger Over Exclusion from Planning". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  9. ↑ Stern, Robert A. M. (2022-03-08). Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture. The Monacelli Press, LLC. ISBN   978-1-58093-589-0.
  10. ↑ "COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY BUILDING NAMES". Notable New Yorkers. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  11. ↑ "Did You Know? Carman Hall Went Unnamed for Nearly Six Years". Columbia College Today. 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  12. ↑ "Columbia Dormitory Named". The New York Times. 1965-04-30. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  13. ↑ "Columbia, Cornell, Brown universities given all-clear after bomb threats". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  14. ↑ Weill, Kelly (2021-11-12). "The Jilted Misogynist Behind the College Bomb Threats". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Columbia Spectator 25 March 2005 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  16. ↑ Dynes, Wayne R.; Donaldson, Stephen (1992). Homosexuality and Government, Politics and Prisons. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   978-0-8153-0555-2.
  17. ↑ "Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks at Columbia College Commencement". www.justice.gov. 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  18. ↑ "Take Five with Chris Wiggins '93". Columbia College Today. 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  19. ↑ VAMPIRE WEEKEND give tour of MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS , retrieved 2022-01-12
  20. ↑ "Take Five with Eric Garcetti '92, SIPA'93". Columbia College Today. 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  21. 1 2 "Take Five with Niles Eldredge '65, GSAS'69". Columbia College Today. 2020-07-23. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  22. ↑ "NYT Bestselling Author Recalls Carman and Koronet". Columbia College Today. 2020-12-23. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  23. ↑ "Take Five with Olivier Knox '92". Columbia College Today. 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  24. ↑ "Former U.S. Ambassador Reflects on C.C. and "Carmania"". Columbia College Today. 2021-03-11. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  25. ↑ "Take Five with Dr. Rebekah Gee '97, PH'98". Columbia College Today. 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  26. ↑ "Take Five with Ellen Gustafson '02". Columbia College Today. 2018-04-06. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  27. ↑ "Take Five with Danielle Maged '89, BUS'97". Columbia College Today. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  28. ↑ "Carnoy and Lavine Elected Trustee Co-Chairs". Columbia College Today. 2018-06-28. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  29. ↑ "Take Five with Harriet Ryan Lavietes '96". Columbia College Today. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  30. ↑ "Take Five with Tom Kitt '96". Columbia College Today. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  31. ↑ "Take Five with Rabbi Deborah Waxman '89". Columbia College Today. 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  32. ↑ New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. 1983-09-19.
  33. 1 2 "The Core Had a Huge Impact on Mayor Tim Kelly '89". Columbia College Today. 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
  34. ↑ "Columbia Spectator 7 February 2003 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  35. ↑ "City Council Candidate Loved Campus and Harlem". Columbia College Today. 2021-06-22. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  36. ↑ "Take Five with Peter Mendelsund '91". Columbia College Today. 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  37. ↑ "Professor Robert S. Levine '75 Was Transformed by the Core". Columbia College Today. 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  38. ↑ "Take Five". Columbia College Today. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  39. ↑ Auster, Paul (2017-01-31). 4 3 2 1. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN   978-1-62779-447-3.
  40. ↑ Auster, Paul (2012-08-07). Winter Journal. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN   978-0-7710-0906-8.
  41. ↑ Coes, Ben (2016-06-28). First Strike: A Thriller. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN   978-1-4668-4127-7.
  42. ↑ Farley, C. J. (2021-09-07). Zero O'Clock: A Young Adult Novel. Akashic Books. ISBN   978-1-61775-992-5.
  43. ↑ Spike, Paul (2016-10-01). Photographs of My Father. Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN   978-1-941026-24-3.

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