Columbia in Manhattanville edited by Caitlin Blanchfield
Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016
Paperback, 142 pages

In October 2016 I went on a press tour of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, one of two buildings designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop that were nearing completion as part of the first phase of Columbia University's new Manhattanville campus. The timing was a bit odd, given that it and the other building, the Lenfest Center for the Arts, won't open until spring 2017. (A third Piano-designed building, the University Forum and Academic Conference Center, will open in 2018, to be followed a few years later by a pair of buildings designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.) No doubt, the tour took place before all of the expensive scientific equipment would move into the building, but it also sped up any positive reception of the project, which has been in the works as far back as 2002 (when SOM was hired to work on Columbia's expansion) and has seen its fair share of opposition and criticism. Bringing the press inside the Piano building before the students, scientists, and other users enabled us to see firsthand how well the building realizes the school's goals of using transparency and the street grid to create a neighborhood that is one with the city. Or so Columbia would like people to consider.
Around the time of the tour, Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, an imprint of Columbia GSAPP, published this book on the Manhattanville pr...