Columbia University tunnels

The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum (1821–1889) was an American private hospital for the care of the mentally ill, founded by New York Hospital. It was located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, where Columbia University is now located. It relocated to White Plains, New York, as the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, now known as the "NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center."The road leading to the asylum from the thriving city of New York (at the time consisting only of lower Manhattan) was called Bloomingdale Road in the 19th century, and is now called Broadway. The term "Bloomingdale" dates back to the era of Dutch rule in New Amsterdam, and is possibly a reference to "Bloemendael," the name of a small village in the flower-growing region near Haarlem in the Netherlands. Bloomingdale is described as being a small village on the island, in Spafford's Gazetteer, of 1813.

Schermerhorn Hall (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsxɛrmərˌɦɔrn]) is an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University located at 1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York City, United States. Schermerhorn was built in 1897 with a $300,000 gift from alumnus and trustee William Colford Schermerhorn. It was designed by McKim, Mead & White, and was originally intended to house the "natural sciences". During the early 20th century, it was used for studying botany, geology, physics, mechanics, and astronomy. The inscription above the doorway reads, "For the advancement of natural science. Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee."The famous Fly Room of evolutionary biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan was located in room 613, where Morgan studied the genetic characteristics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. His work in Schermerhorn would lead to his discovery of the role of genes in genetic inheritance, which earned him the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. During the Manhattan Project, Schermerhorn was used "for early 'pile' research and gaseous diffusion research and development and operation of a barrier production pilot plant."

The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is a library located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the New York City. It is the largest architecture library in the world. Serving Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Avery Library collects books and periodicals in architecture, historic preservation, art history, painting, sculpting, graphic arts, decorative arts, city planning, real estate, and archaeology, as well as archival materials primarily documenting 19th- and 20th-century American architects and architecture. The architectural, fine arts, Ware, and archival collections are non-circulating. The Avery-LC Collection, primarily newer print books, does circulate.

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (popularly known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; previously known as Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University. It was founded as the School of Mines in 1863 and then the School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry before becoming the School of Engineering and Applied Science. On October 1, 1997, the school was renamed in honor of Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu, who had donated $26 million to the school. The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science maintains a close research tie with other institutions including NASA, IBM, MIT, and The Earth Institute. Patents owned by the school generate over $100 million annually for the university. SEAS faculty and alumni are responsible for technological achievements including the developments of FM radio and the maser. The School's applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, computer science and the financial engineering program in operations research are very famous and highly ranked. The current SEAS faculty include 27 members of the National Academy of Engineering and one Nobel laureate. In all, the faculty and alumni of Columbia Engineering have won 10 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics. The school consists of approximately 300 undergraduates in each graduating class and maintains close links with its undergraduate liberal arts sister school Columbia College which shares housing with SEAS students. The School's current dean is Shih-Fu Chang, who was appointed in 2022.

Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one of the oldest business schools in the world. Although it originally offered undergraduate degrees, it stopped doing so in the middle of the twentieth century and now only offers graduate degrees and professional programs.

Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside Heights borders Central Harlem and Morningside Park to the east, Manhattanville to the north, the Manhattan Valley section of the Upper West Side to the south, and Riverside Park to the west. Broadway is the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, running north–south. Morningside Heights, located on a high plateau between Morningside and Riverside Parks, was hard to access until the late 19th century and was sparsely developed except for the Bloomingdale and Leake and Watts asylums. Morningside Heights and the Upper West Side were considered part of the Bloomingdale District until Morningside Park was finished in the late 19th century. Large-scale development started in the 1890s with academic and cultural institutions. By the 1900s, public transportation construction and the neighborhood's first subway line led to Morningside Heights being developed into a residential neighborhood. Morningside Heights was mostly developed by the 1930s. During the mid-20th century, as the institutions within Morningside Heights expanded, cultural tensions grew between residents who were affiliated with institutions and those who were not. After a period of decline, the neighborhood started to gentrify in the 1980s and 1990s. A large portion of Morningside Heights is part of the campus of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university. Morningside Heights contains numerous other educational institutions such as Teachers College, Barnard College, the Manhattan School of Music, Bank Street College of Education, Union Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Additionally, Morningside Heights includes several religious institutions, including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Riverside Church, the Church of Notre Dame, Corpus Christi Church, and Interchurch Center. The neighborhood also contains other architectural landmarks, such as St. Luke's Hospital (now Mount Sinai Morningside) and Grant's Tomb. Morningside Heights is part of Manhattan Community District 9. It is patrolled by the 26th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Fire services are provided by the New York City Fire Department's Engine Company 47 and Engine Company 37/Ladder Company 40. Politically it is represented by the New York City Council's 7th District.

Francis S. Levien Gymnasium is a 2,500-seat arena at Columbia University in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. Named for New York lawyer-industrialist Francis S. Levien (1905–95), it is home to the Columbia Men's and Women's Basketball teams and the Women's Volleyball team. It is also used for gym classes in between games. Part of the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center, Levien Gym opened in 1974 as a replacement for the old University Gym, which is still used for intramural sports.

Rutherfurd Observatory is the astronomical facility maintained by Columbia University named after Lewis Morris Rutherfurd. Initially, Rutherfurd housed its telescopes and equipment in midtown Manhattan and later on the Stuyvesant Estate. When the Morningside campus was built, telescopes were kept in a "transit building" where the Interdisciplinary Science Building now stands. When Pupin Physics Laboratories were completed in 1927, the home of the observatory was moved to the top of the building. Below the Rutherfurd Observatory on the 14th floor was the site of Professor Wallace Eckert's Astronomical Laboratory, in which he constructed the first device to perform general scientific calculations automatically in 1933-34. The observatory formerly included a twelve-inch (30 cm.) refractor telescope built by the Alvan Clark firm in 1916 for the Czarist government of Russia. It was to be installed at a site to observe an upcoming solar eclipse in Russia. With unrestricted U-boat warfare during World War I, shipment was delayed until the war ended. The new Russian government headed by Lenin refused to pay for or accept the telescope, which sat in a crate in a warehouse until 1920, when Columbia bought it. The telescope was for many years used almost entirely for student education. It was sold in 1997 to South Carolina State Museum, which specializes in the upkeep of the old Alvan Clark refractors.In the 1970s, the "Columbia CO Survey" built a 1.2-meter radio telescope that operated out of the Little Dome and was the first to map the sky in this important radio band.Rutherfurd observatory has been in continuous operation since Pupin was constructed, but in 2009 a new "Northwest Corner Building" was erected next to it, six floors higher than the roof of Pupin and blocking a significant portion of its field of view, and putting out a considerable amount of light, interfering with observations in the remaining sky.

Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) is the graduate school of education of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, Teachers College has served as one of the official faculties and the Department of Education of Columbia University since 1898 and is consistently ranked among the top 10 graduate schools of education in the United States (currently 7th as of 2022). It is the oldest and largest graduate school of education in the United States. Although it was founded as an independent institution and retains some independence, it has been associated with Columbia University since shortly after its founding and merger with the university. Teachers College alumni and faculty have held prominent positions in academia, government, music, non-profit, healthcare, and social science research just to name a few. Overall, Teachers College has over 90,000 alumni in more than 30 countries. Notable alumni and former faculty include John Dewey, Art Garfunkel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer (Dr. Ruth), Carl Rogers, Margaret Mead, Bill Campbell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Thorndike, Rollo May, Donna Shalala, Albert Ellis, William Schuman (former president of the Juilliard School), Lee Huan (Premier of the Republic of China), Shirley Chisholm (first black woman elected to the United States Congress), Hafizullah Amin (leader of Afghanistan), Hamden L. Forkner (founder of Future Business Leaders of America), and E. Gordon Gee (has held more university presidencies than any other American including Brown University and Vanderbilt University).

The Columbia Water Center (CWC) was established in January 2008 as Columbia University branch Earth institute on researching and addressing global water-related challenges, including water scarcity, access and quality, alongside Climate risks and changes.Its stated mission is to "creatively tackle water challenges of a rapidly changing environment and Earth’s biodiversity contribution of humanity’s carbon footprint affecting the water including climate change affecting food, energy, ecosystems and urbanization," by combining "the rigor of scientific research with the impact of effective policy."The Center takes a multidisciplinary approach to their mission, employing hydrologists, climatologists, environmental engineers, and water policy analysts. Its directors are Upmanu Lall and Carol Silberstein, Professor of Earth, Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University.Pierre Gentine, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, also takes a leading role in the Center, with his own PhD and Post-doctoral team focusing on the interactions between soil and atmospheric moisture.The Center currently divides its projects into five themes: America's Water, The Global Floods Initiative, Data Analytics and Multi-Scale Predictions, Risk and Financial Instruments and the Water, Food, Energy Nexus.

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York is the governing board of Columbia University in New York City. Founded in 1754, it is also referred to as the Columbia Corporation, as distinguished from affiliates of the University that are separate legal entities, such as Barnard College. The board of trustees was originally composed of ex officio members including officials from the New York colonial government, crown officials, and various protestant ministers from the city. Following the college's resuscitation following the American Revolutionary War, it was placed under the control of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, and the university would finally come under the control of a private board of trustees in 1787. The board is notable for having administered the Pulitzer Prize from the prize's establishment until 1975. It consists of 24 members and as of 2021 is co-chaired by Lisa Carnoy and Jonathan Lavine.

The Low Memorial Library (nicknamed Low) is a building at the center of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building, located near 116th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, was designed by Charles Follen McKim of the firm McKim, Mead & White. The building was constructed between 1895 and 1897 as the university's central library, although it has contained the university's central administrative offices since 1934. Columbia University president Seth Low funded the building with $1 million (equivalent to $33 million in 2021) and named the edifice in memory of his father, Abiel Abbot Low. Low's facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the building is also designated as a National Historic Landmark. Low is arranged in the shape of a Greek cross. Three sets of stairs on the library's south side lead to a colonnade with a frieze describing its founding. The steps contain Daniel Chester French's sculpture Alma Mater, a university symbol. The library is four stories tall, excluding a ground-level basement. The building's raised first floor has an entrance vestibule, as well as an ambulatory around an octagonal rotunda, which leads to offices on the outer walls. The rotunda contains a sky-blue plaster dome and four Vermont granite columns on each of its four sides. The library's stacks could store one-and-a-half million volumes; the east wing hosted the Avery Architectural Library and the north wing hosted Columbia's law library. The library was built as part of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, which was developed in the 1890s according to a master plan by McKim. When Low Library was completed, it was poorly suited for library use, becoming overcrowded from the early 20th century. Low's central location, however, made it a focal point of the university's campus. Following the completion of the much larger Butler Library in 1934, the Low Memorial Library was converted to administrative offices.