Campus of New York University
Encyclopedia
The urban
campus of New York University
is located in Manhattan
, New York
, primarily situated around Washington Square Park
.
to the east, 14th Street
to the north, and Sixth Avenue
(Avenue of the Americas) to the west. Most of NYU's main buildings, including the Silver Center
, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
, and the Kimmel Center, surround Washington Square Park
.
Since the late 1970s, the central part of NYU is its Washington Square campus in the heart of Greenwich Village
. Despite being public property, and expanding the 5th avenue axis into Washington Square Park
, the Washington Square Arch is the unofficial symbol of NYU. Every year, the Washington Square campus holds its commencement (graduation) ceremonies in Washington Square Park
. Important facilities at Washington Square are the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
, designed by Philip Johnson
and Richard Foster
, who also designed several other structures, such as Tisch Hall, Meyer Hall, and the Hagop Kevorkian Center. When designing these buildings Johnson and Foster also set up a master plan for a complete redesign of the NYU Washington Square Campus. However, it was never implemented. Other historic buildings include the Silver Center
(formerly known as "Main building"); the Brown Building of Science
; Judson Hall, which houses the King Juan Carlos I of Spain
Center http://www.nyu.edu/pages/kjc/flash.php; Vanderbilt Hall, the historic townhouse row on Washington Square North
; The Grey Art Gallery at 100 Washington Square East, housing the New York University
art collection and featuring museum quality exhibitions;
the Kaufman Management Center; and the Torch Club (the NYU dining and club facility for alumni, faculty and administrators). Just a block south of Washington Square is NYU's Washington Square Village
, housing graduate students and junior and senior faculty residences in the Silver Towers, designed by I.M. Pei, where an enlargement of Picasso's sculpture Bust of Sylvette (1934) is displayed.
The contractors of the Old University Building used prisoners from Sing Sing
to cut the marble. This hiring was the catalyst for the famous Stonecutter's Riot. The old University Building was also subject to several ghost stories. It was believed that the building was haunted by a young artist resident who had died in one of the building's turrets. The spirit was said to pace through the hallways and staircases. In 1880, the San Francisco Chronicle
reported that “the structure has an evil repute with the servant girls of the neighborhood…They have a notion that deep in subcellars lie corpses, skeletons and other dreadful things”. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
on March 25, 1911 took place in the Brown Building of Science (formerly the Asch Building) which today is part of the NYU campus. More than a hundred garment workers, most young women and girls, died or jumped to their deaths after a fire broke out whilst all exit doors were locked. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
.
In the 1990s, NYU became a "Two Square" university by building a second community around Union Square
, about a 10-minute walk from Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community consists of the upperclassmen residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, University Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Towers, Thirteenth Street Hall, and Third North Residence Hall.
but also external productions. The largest performance accommodations at NYU are the Skirball Center for Performing Arts
(850 seats) at 566 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square South; and the Eisner-Lubin Auditorium (560 seats) in the Kimmel Center. Recently, the Skirball Center hosted important speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry
and Al Gore
as well as the recording of the season finale of The Apprentice
3. Well-known also is NYU's Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street, where Eugene O'Neill among many others launched his career and the Frederick Loewe Theatre. Catalyst to many careers in music (Bruce Springsteen began his career here among many others) was the famous nightclub The Bottom Line, found on the corner of West 4th and Mercer Streets. Despite the objections of many supporters, this club was evicted by NYU after being unable to meet for several months the increased rent payments.
and Richard Foster
, the 12-story, 39,000 m² (425,000 square feet) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million volume system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world’s scholarship and serves as a center for the University’s intellectual life. Bobst Library contains more than 3.3 million volumes, 20,000 journals, and more than 3.5 million microforms. The library is visited by more than 6,500 users each day, and circulates almost one million books annually. In addition to its regular collection it houses a number of special collections and archives, including the Archives of Irish America and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives
.
The floor of the library, when viewed from above, was designed to appear three-dimensional. In late 2003, Bobst Library was the site of two suicidal incidents. Two students jumped from the open-air crosswalks inside the library onto the marble floor below. The students later died of their injuries. After the second suicide, NYU installed plexi-glass windows on each level to prevent further attempts. In 2003, Bobst Library was also in the news for being the home of a homeless student
who resided at the library because he could not afford student housing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3665885.stm
The Kimmel Center for University Life, named for benefactors Helen and Martin Kimmel, was built in 2003 to house the majority of the University's student services offices. The center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center. The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is a professionally operated and programmed 850-seat proscenium theater
. Presentations there have included the Abbey Theater of Dublin's Playboy of the Western World, the world premiere of Mabou Mines Red Beads, a series of concerts by World Music Institute, and a series of superlative dance companies, including Lar Lubovitch and Bill T. Jones. The Skirball Center is the largest performing arts facility south of 42nd Street
.
The School of Law's Furman Hall, built in 2004, was named for NYU Law alumnus Jay Furman (JD '71). Rebuilt elements of two historic buildings were incorporated into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe
.
In 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place
. The facility will accommodate laboratories and related academic space for the life sciences and will be the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971.
In November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26-floor, 190000 square feet (17,651.6 m²) residence hall on 12th Street. The residence hall is expected to accommodate about 700 undergraduates and contain a host of other student facilities. It is to be the tallest building in the East Village
. The plans have caused anger among East Village and other New York City
residents, as the new building would be built over the old St. Ann's Church.
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (aka NYU-Poly) is located in Downtown Brooklyn
. It is centrally located in the MetroTech Center
and is close to transportation routes and easily accessible from all parts of New York City and Long Island. The university has state-of-the-art facilitates including a brand new library and new faculties for its electrical engineering, computer science and computer engineering programs. The Brooklyn campus offers programs primarily for undergraduates students but also offers opportunities for graduate students, including those executive programs for students with related experience.
Polytechnic Institute played a leadership role in bringing about MetroTech Center, one of the largest urban university-corporate parks in the world and the largest in the United States. Today, the 16-acre (65,000 m²), $1 billion complex is home to the institute and several technology-dependent companies, including Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), New York City Police Department's 911 Center, New York City Fire Department Headquarters and the U.S. technology and operations functions of JPMorgan Chase. In 1998, a Marriott Hotel was built adjacent to MetroTech. MetroTech has proven to be a case study in effective university, corporate, government and private-developer cooperation. It has resulted in renewing an area that once was characterized more by urban decay.
Wunsch Building houses the school's student union and is used to host many social, cultural, and academic events for the school and community. The building dates back to 1847 and was the first independent black church in Brooklyn. It was also a stop on the Underground Railroad and has been designated a historic landmark since November 24, 1981.
The Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, opened in 1990 in a new building, is Polytechnic's information hub, accessible online from anywhere, on or off campus, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, wireless networks allow users with notebook computers to access the library's electronic services from anywhere on campus.
. Other NYU Centers across the city include NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Bellevue Hospital Center. NYU’s Ehrenkranz School of Social Work manages branch campus programs in Westchester County at Manhattanville College
and in Rockland County at St. Thomas Aquinas College
. In Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, NYU has a research facility that contains several institutes, in particular the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine. The Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street and the Woolworth Building
in the financial district are home to NYU's continuing education programs.
to NYU in 1994. NYU manages undergraduate academic year study abroad programs in Florence
, London
, Paris
, Prague
, Berlin
, Accra
, Madrid
, Shanghai
, and Buenos Aires
. The most recent study abroad programs to occur are NYU in Tel Aviv
, set to open in 2009, and NYU in Abu Dhabi
, set to open in 2010.
NYU was also the founding member of the League of World Universities
.
complexes or old hotels. Most freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. While nearly all the upper classmen dorms are in the Union Square area, a few of them are as far as the Financial District, Manhattan
. Until the Spring 2005 semester, NYU used a lottery system to determine eligibility for residence hall preference. Under this system, a student received one point for every semester they had lived in campus housing. Freshmen are freed from the lottery system and are by tradition placed in the halls closest to the main campus area. Therefore, historically, most of the students who lived in dorms found off-campus were sophomores. However, beginning in the fall 2006 semester, sophomores received priority housing, giving them first choice of residence halls. The purpose of this initiative was to keep the sophomore class together in the Union Square
area. As a result, the junior class (class of 2008) and the senior class (class of 2007) never benefited from first choice as sophomores or seniors. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students, by bus
or trolley
, to campus. Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing during their enrollment at NYU.
Twenty-one buildings are in NYU's undergraduate housing system. In general, NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings, and some are opulent. Many rooms are spacious and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms, such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas, one residence hall even has maid service.. All residence halls are staffed by 24-hour security staff, contain multiple resident assistant
s (RAs), and several halls contain faculty in residence. Unlike many other universities, NYU rooms all have their own bathrooms and thus no common bathrooms exist. Many residence halls have their own dining hall, and the university has meal choices to suit various diets. Almost all the residence halls have a laundry
room that is open to resident students 24 hours a day.
All the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council
(IRHC), an umbrella student council organization. Each hall elects student representatives to the IRHC, and those representatives meet with one another to form committees and vote on an executive board. The goal of this group is to create programs for university students and to act as a link to university administration.
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
campus of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
is located in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, primarily situated around Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
.
Facilities and monuments
Most of NYU's buildings are scattered across a roughly square area bounded by Houston Street to the south, BroadwayBroadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
to the east, 14th Street
14th Street (Manhattan)
14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street rivals the size of some of the well-known avenues of the city and is an important business location....
to the north, and Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
(Avenue of the Americas) to the west. Most of NYU's main buildings, including the Silver Center
Silver Center
The Silver Center of Arts and Science is the home of the New York University College of Arts and Science. The Dean of the College of Arts & Science and the college administration are located in this facility which forms an imposing landmark on the eastern border of Washington Square Park.At the...
, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, often referred to as Bobst Library or Bobst, is the main library at New York University. Located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz pedestrian plaza, across from the southeast corner of Washington Square Park, it is named after...
, and the Kimmel Center, surround Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
.
Washington Square campus
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. Despite being public property, and expanding the 5th avenue axis into Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
, the Washington Square Arch is the unofficial symbol of NYU. Every year, the Washington Square campus holds its commencement (graduation) ceremonies in Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
. Important facilities at Washington Square are the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, often referred to as Bobst Library or Bobst, is the main library at New York University. Located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz pedestrian plaza, across from the southeast corner of Washington Square Park, it is named after...
, designed by Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
and Richard Foster
Richard Foster (architect)
Richard T. Foster was a modernist architect who worked in the New York area, and also around Greenwich, Connecticut, often in partnership with Philip Johnson, including the Glass House located in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was educated at the Pratt Institute....
, who also designed several other structures, such as Tisch Hall, Meyer Hall, and the Hagop Kevorkian Center. When designing these buildings Johnson and Foster also set up a master plan for a complete redesign of the NYU Washington Square Campus. However, it was never implemented. Other historic buildings include the Silver Center
Silver Center
The Silver Center of Arts and Science is the home of the New York University College of Arts and Science. The Dean of the College of Arts & Science and the college administration are located in this facility which forms an imposing landmark on the eastern border of Washington Square Park.At the...
(formerly known as "Main building"); the Brown Building of Science
Brown Building of Science
The Brown Building is a ten-story building that is part of the campus of New York University . It is located at 23-29 Washington Place, between Greene Street and Washington Square East in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1900-01, designed by John Wolley in the neo-Renaissance style and was...
; Judson Hall, which houses the King Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
Center http://www.nyu.edu/pages/kjc/flash.php; Vanderbilt Hall, the historic townhouse row on Washington Square North
Washington Square North
Washington Square North, also historically called "The Row", is a American street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York....
; The Grey Art Gallery at 100 Washington Square East, housing the New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
art collection and featuring museum quality exhibitions;
the Kaufman Management Center; and the Torch Club (the NYU dining and club facility for alumni, faculty and administrators). Just a block south of Washington Square is NYU's Washington Square Village
Washington Square Village
Washington Square Village is an apartment complex in a superblock in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. WSV was developed by Paul Tishman and Morton S. Wolf. To design the housing complex,the developer selected architects S.J...
, housing graduate students and junior and senior faculty residences in the Silver Towers, designed by I.M. Pei, where an enlargement of Picasso's sculpture Bust of Sylvette (1934) is displayed.
The contractors of the Old University Building used prisoners from Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
to cut the marble. This hiring was the catalyst for the famous Stonecutter's Riot. The old University Building was also subject to several ghost stories. It was believed that the building was haunted by a young artist resident who had died in one of the building's turrets. The spirit was said to pace through the hallways and staircases. In 1880, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
reported that “the structure has an evil repute with the servant girls of the neighborhood…They have a notion that deep in subcellars lie corpses, skeletons and other dreadful things”. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history...
on March 25, 1911 took place in the Brown Building of Science (formerly the Asch Building) which today is part of the NYU campus. More than a hundred garment workers, most young women and girls, died or jumped to their deaths after a fire broke out whilst all exit doors were locked. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
.
In the 1990s, NYU became a "Two Square" university by building a second community around Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
, about a 10-minute walk from Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community consists of the upperclassmen residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, University Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Towers, Thirteenth Street Hall, and Third North Residence Hall.
NYU theaters and clubs
NYU operates several theaters and performance facilities that are often used by the university's music conservatory and Tisch School of the ArtsTisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
but also external productions. The largest performance accommodations at NYU are the Skirball Center for Performing Arts
Skirball Center for Performing Arts
The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is an 850-seat theater in Manhattan, New York owned by New York University. The Skirball Center is the largest performing arts facility south of 42nd Street. Recently, the Skirball Center hosted speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry and Al Gore...
(850 seats) at 566 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square South; and the Eisner-Lubin Auditorium (560 seats) in the Kimmel Center. Recently, the Skirball Center hosted important speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
and Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
as well as the recording of the season finale of The Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. TV series)
The Apprentice is an American reality television show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC...
3. Well-known also is NYU's Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street, where Eugene O'Neill among many others launched his career and the Frederick Loewe Theatre. Catalyst to many careers in music (Bruce Springsteen began his career here among many others) was the famous nightclub The Bottom Line, found on the corner of West 4th and Mercer Streets. Despite the objections of many supporters, this club was evicted by NYU after being unable to meet for several months the increased rent payments.
Bobst Library
The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, built between 1967 and 1972, is the largest library at NYU and one of the largest academic libraries in the U.S. Designed by Philip JohnsonPhilip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
and Richard Foster
Richard Foster (architect)
Richard T. Foster was a modernist architect who worked in the New York area, and also around Greenwich, Connecticut, often in partnership with Philip Johnson, including the Glass House located in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was educated at the Pratt Institute....
, the 12-story, 39,000 m² (425,000 square feet) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million volume system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world’s scholarship and serves as a center for the University’s intellectual life. Bobst Library contains more than 3.3 million volumes, 20,000 journals, and more than 3.5 million microforms. The library is visited by more than 6,500 users each day, and circulates almost one million books annually. In addition to its regular collection it houses a number of special collections and archives, including the Archives of Irish America and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives
The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. The Robert F. Wagner Archives, which is also housed in...
.
The floor of the library, when viewed from above, was designed to appear three-dimensional. In late 2003, Bobst Library was the site of two suicidal incidents. Two students jumped from the open-air crosswalks inside the library onto the marble floor below. The students later died of their injuries. After the second suicide, NYU installed plexi-glass windows on each level to prevent further attempts. In 2003, Bobst Library was also in the news for being the home of a homeless student
Bobst Boy
Bobst Boy is the nickname of Steven Stanzak , a New York University student who spent eight months living in the basement of the school's Bobst Library from September 2003 to April 2004....
who resided at the library because he could not afford student housing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3665885.stm
Recent developments
Over the last few years, NYU has developed a number of new facilities on and around its Washington Square Campus:The Kimmel Center for University Life, named for benefactors Helen and Martin Kimmel, was built in 2003 to house the majority of the University's student services offices. The center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center. The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is a professionally operated and programmed 850-seat proscenium theater
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
. Presentations there have included the Abbey Theater of Dublin's Playboy of the Western World, the world premiere of Mabou Mines Red Beads, a series of concerts by World Music Institute, and a series of superlative dance companies, including Lar Lubovitch and Bill T. Jones. The Skirball Center is the largest performing arts facility south of 42nd Street
42nd Street (Manhattan)
42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
.
The School of Law's Furman Hall, built in 2004, was named for NYU Law alumnus Jay Furman (JD '71). Rebuilt elements of two historic buildings were incorporated into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
.
In 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place
Waverly Place
Waverly Place is a narrow street in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, in the borough of Manhattan. Waverly changes direction roughly at its midpoint, turning from a north-by-northwest/south-by-southeast street to a northwest/southeast street...
. The facility will accommodate laboratories and related academic space for the life sciences and will be the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971.
In November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26-floor, 190000 square feet (17,651.6 m²) residence hall on 12th Street. The residence hall is expected to accommodate about 700 undergraduates and contain a host of other student facilities. It is to be the tallest building in the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
. The plans have caused anger among East Village and other New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
residents, as the new building would be built over the old St. Ann's Church.
Brooklyn Campus
Downtown Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City , and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn...
. It is centrally located in the MetroTech Center
MetroTech Center
MetroTech Center is a business and educational center in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. Original occupants of this area include JPMorgan Chase, New York City Fire Department Headquarters, Bear Stearns, Keyspan Energy, now National Grid, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Polytechnic University,...
and is close to transportation routes and easily accessible from all parts of New York City and Long Island. The university has state-of-the-art facilitates including a brand new library and new faculties for its electrical engineering, computer science and computer engineering programs. The Brooklyn campus offers programs primarily for undergraduates students but also offers opportunities for graduate students, including those executive programs for students with related experience.
Polytechnic Institute played a leadership role in bringing about MetroTech Center, one of the largest urban university-corporate parks in the world and the largest in the United States. Today, the 16-acre (65,000 m²), $1 billion complex is home to the institute and several technology-dependent companies, including Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), New York City Police Department's 911 Center, New York City Fire Department Headquarters and the U.S. technology and operations functions of JPMorgan Chase. In 1998, a Marriott Hotel was built adjacent to MetroTech. MetroTech has proven to be a case study in effective university, corporate, government and private-developer cooperation. It has resulted in renewing an area that once was characterized more by urban decay.
Wunsch Building houses the school's student union and is used to host many social, cultural, and academic events for the school and community. The building dates back to 1847 and was the first independent black church in Brooklyn. It was also a stop on the Underground Railroad and has been designated a historic landmark since November 24, 1981.
The Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, opened in 1990 in a new building, is Polytechnic's information hub, accessible online from anywhere, on or off campus, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, wireless networks allow users with notebook computers to access the library's electronic services from anywhere on campus.
Medical and other campuses
The main NYU Medical Campus is situated at the East River waterfront at First Ave. between East 30th and East 34th Streets. The campus hosts the Medical School, Tisch Hospital, and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation MedicineRusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
The Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine is the world's first and largest university-affiliated center devoted entirely to inpatient/outpatient care, research and training in rehabilitation medicine. It is part of the NYU Langone Medical Center and operated under the auspices of the...
. Other NYU Centers across the city include NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Bellevue Hospital Center. NYU’s Ehrenkranz School of Social Work manages branch campus programs in Westchester County at Manhattanville College
Manhattanville College
Manhattanville College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, located in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1841 it was known initially as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart...
and in Rockland County at St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Rockland County, New York that occupies a forty-eight acre campus. Located at 125 Route 340 in Sparkill, New York, the college is named after the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas...
. In Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, NYU has a research facility that contains several institutes, in particular the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine. The Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street and the Woolworth Building
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...
in the financial district are home to NYU's continuing education programs.
Foreign facilities
NYU has an extensive study abroad program in which a good portion of the student body participates; hence, the school has earned the nickname “Global U.” Unlike most other universities, NYU has its own international facilities in several countries. Most noteworthy is the 57 acres (230,671 m²) campus of NYU Florence at Villa La Pietra in Italy, bequeathed by the late Sir Harold ActonHarold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton CBE was a British writer, scholar and dilettante perhaps most famous for being wrongly believed to have inspired the character of "Anthony Blanche" in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited...
to NYU in 1994. NYU manages undergraduate academic year study abroad programs in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. The most recent study abroad programs to occur are NYU in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, set to open in 2009, and NYU in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
, set to open in 2010.
International houses on campus
NYU has several international houses to foster the study of international culture and languages. The international houses have their own classroom space, libraries, offices, and often host campus events. The NYU international houses are:- Deutsches Haus
- La Maison FrançaiseLa Maison FrançaiseLa Maison Française is the center for French culture at New York University.Just north of Washington Square, at the entrance to historic, cobblestoned Washington Mews, stands a New York landmark, La Maison Française. Since its founding in 1957, the "French House" has become the most active center...
- Glucksman Ireland House,
- Casa Italiana,
- King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center
- Hagop Kevorkian Center
- Africa House
- China House
NYU was also the founding member of the League of World Universities
League of World Universities
The League of World Universities is an international organization consisting of rectors and presidents from urban universities across six continents. The league and its 47 representatives gather every two years to discuss global issues in education. L. Jay Oliva formed the organization in 1991 just...
.
Residence halls
With 12,500 residents, NYU has the seventh largest university housing system in the U.S. and the largest among private schools. Uniquely, many of NYU residence halls are converted apartmentApartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
complexes or old hotels. Most freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. While nearly all the upper classmen dorms are in the Union Square area, a few of them are as far as the Financial District, Manhattan
Financial District, Manhattan
The Financial District of New York City is a neighborhood on the southernmost section of the borough of Manhattan which comprises the offices and headquarters of many of the city's major financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York...
. Until the Spring 2005 semester, NYU used a lottery system to determine eligibility for residence hall preference. Under this system, a student received one point for every semester they had lived in campus housing. Freshmen are freed from the lottery system and are by tradition placed in the halls closest to the main campus area. Therefore, historically, most of the students who lived in dorms found off-campus were sophomores. However, beginning in the fall 2006 semester, sophomores received priority housing, giving them first choice of residence halls. The purpose of this initiative was to keep the sophomore class together in the Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
area. As a result, the junior class (class of 2008) and the senior class (class of 2007) never benefited from first choice as sophomores or seniors. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students, by bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
or trolley
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
, to campus. Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing during their enrollment at NYU.
Twenty-one buildings are in NYU's undergraduate housing system. In general, NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings, and some are opulent. Many rooms are spacious and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms, such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas, one residence hall even has maid service.. All residence halls are staffed by 24-hour security staff, contain multiple resident assistant
Resident assistant
A resident assistant , commonly shortened to RA is a trained peer leader who supervises those living in a residence hall or group housing facility...
s (RAs), and several halls contain faculty in residence. Unlike many other universities, NYU rooms all have their own bathrooms and thus no common bathrooms exist. Many residence halls have their own dining hall, and the university has meal choices to suit various diets. Almost all the residence halls have a laundry
Laundry
Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...
room that is open to resident students 24 hours a day.
All the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council
Residence hall association
In the United States, a Residence Hall Association is a student-run university residence hall governing body. It is usually the parent organization for individual hall governments. Their function is similar to a student government, except that most of their activities pertain to on-campus living...
(IRHC), an umbrella student council organization. Each hall elects student representatives to the IRHC, and those representatives meet with one another to form committees and vote on an executive board. The goal of this group is to create programs for university students and to act as a link to university administration.