In 1987 Columbia University's 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 early vision of former Columbia President Seth Low more than a century ago. Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of its Morningside Heights campus, three fall exhibitions at Columbia critically explore the architecture and planning history of the Morningside campus, revealing the story not of a cloistered ivory tower that one might expect but of an institution defining itself within the social, economic, and political context of the urban center which it chose as its home. A Chronicle of a Monumental Enterprise includes images from the photographic campaign that meticulously documented the construction of the library. All exhibitions will take place on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, Broadway and 116th Street.
Admission is free.
Seth 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. In addition to setting the tone, scale and pattern of campus development, McKim's plan established that Columbia's growth would be complexly intertwined with the growth of the City itself. 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.