Furnald Hall

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Furnald
Built	1913
Renovated	1996
Population	235
University Residence Halls
600 West 113th Street • Broadway • Carman • East Campus • 47 Claremont • Furnald • Hartley • Hogan • John Jay • McBain • River • Ruggles • Schapiro • Wallach • Watt • Wien • Woodbridge

Furnald is a popular, but controversial, residence hall.

For a long time, only seniors were able to get rooms in Furnald in the Room Selection process. It was very popular, not least because it had its own bar in the basement, which reached legendary status.

Today, after being completely renovated, Furnald is a first year and sophomore residence hall. Therefore, first years who aren't housed in Carman, John Jay or the Living Learning Center, still get to live in the quad and are protected to some extent from juniors and seniors. The remaining space is open to rising sophomores in General Selection. Typically, only sophomores with lottery numbers between 1 and 500 (about 100 or so lucky souls) are able to get rooms in Furnald.

[edit] History

Furnald Hall was funded by a bequest from Francis Furnald in memory of his son, Royal Blackler Furnald (CC 1901). It was designed by McKim, Mead, and White, and opened in 1913.

During World War I, Furnald was a residence for female graduate students. During World War II, it housed "ninety-day wonder" commissioned naval officers, who were sent off to war after only three months of officer training. It then became a law school dormitory, before once again becoming an undergraduate residence hall in 1960.

By the mid-90s, Furnald had fallen into a state of disrepair. Hartley and Wallach Hall had benefited from major renovation and reconstruction in the 1960s and 1970s due to the generosity of Ira D. Wallach and Jerome L. Greene, but Furnald did not. President George Rupp ordered a $12m complete gutting and rebuilding.

[edit] Famous former residents

• Federico García Lorca‎ (1929)
• Ted Gold (1965-1967)

[edit] Facilities

• All rooms have carpets, air conditioning.
• Each floor has a spacious lounge with a TV and fully-equipped kitchen.
• Each floor has 2 large bathrooms (1 male, 1 female).
• Single laundry room located in basement

[edit] Rooms

• For first years, 78 singles and 17 doubles.
• For sophomores, 109 singles and 7 doubles.
• Floors 1, 2 and 10 have especially large rooms.
• 1002 is an architecturally interesting room.

[edit] Advantages and disadvantages

[edit] Advantages

• Recently renovated, so it almost feels like a new building.
• Convenient location near Lerner, and, well, everything. Perhaps the best location on campus.
• Great campus and Broadway views.
• Nice bathrooms. Especially the handicapped shower stalls with removable shower heads.
• Air conditioning.
• Lots of closet space.
• Basically the only place where you can get a single as a sophomore.
• Ideal choice for independence-minded first years who want lots of privacy. (See below for why Furnald is a bad choice for most first years.)
• Reliable elevators.
• Floor lounges have kitchens, so you can actually cook.

[edit] Disadvantages

• Furnald is a relatively quiet and antisocial residence hall. There are only 25 people on each floor, of whom about 12 are first years, compared to 40+ first years on the average John Jay or Carman floor. Furthermore, the sophomores in Furnald already have their own social networks and tend not to socialize with the first years. So the building doesn't have John Jay's or Carman's social atmosphere, where hundreds of eager beaver first years all want to get to know each other. This is a significant drawback since most students' social networks are built up from their first year floormates.
• Social interaction in lounges is infrequent (relative to other first year dorms).
• Kitchens are less useful for first years required to be on a meal plan.
• Layout is not conducive to intra-floor socializing, since stairways and elevators are on the north and south ends of the hall, which somewhat isolates the north and south sides of the floor from one another
• Uncommon for people to leave their doors open (relative to other first year dorms).
• Doubles are fairly small.

[edit] Pictures

Single, view 1	Single, view 2	Double, view 1	Double, view 2
Double 2, view 1	Double 2, view 2	Double 2, view 3	Double 2, view 4
Floor bathroom, view 1	Floor bathroom, view 2	Floor lounge	Floor kitchen
Main lounge on ground floor

[edit] Floor plans

Floor 1	Floor 2	Floor 3	Floor 4
Floor 5	Floor 6	Floor 7	Floor 8
Floor 9	Floor 10

[edit] Building address

2960 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

[edit] Tunnel/roof connections

[edit] Journalism Hall

Go down to the basement by means of the north staircase. Do not use the south staircase, where a camera will see you. The first machine room on your left has a connecting to Journalism in it, but it is locked most of the time. Occasionally the door is left open by maintenance. Furnald's basement is relatively high-traffic, so go late. Tape open the lock or jam the door if you see it open, maintenance has been known to do this and they won't think twice about it.

[edit] Butler tunnel system

Go down to the basement by means of the north staircase. Walk to the south end. Do not use the south staircase to come down to the basement as there is a camera. Turn left and the usually-locked door in front of you will take you into the tunnels. These tunnels are almost always locked, so you'll probably need to come out the way you came in. You will notice a prominent camera on the wall. The card-swiper's monitor shows this camera only so he/she will have a good view of you. DO NOT turn around and look north. Go fast past it and usually they won't care. Carman Hall and Butler Library are at the end of this system but are almost always locked. There is a moderate security risk and lots of traffic near the entrance.

[edit] Outside

This is the handicapped entrance to the basement. Interesting but not useful. The security danger of taking this tunnel outweighs visiting it. Go to the basement using the north staircase and walk to the south end where you will notice a camera and a way-overkill grate. Columbia really doesn't want people coming into the dorms without swiping. If you are lucky enough to happen upon this grate while it is unlocked, you will find it is nothing more than a short ramp up to the random camera-monitored door on the Broadway side of Furnald. Not that there is a very high security risk here. If you are lucky enough to find the grate unlocked and you enter, you will be noticed by the card-swiper. Campus security will come to find you, but they have no chance of discovering you if you hide. Cover your face so the camera doesn't catch it and don't take too long. Wait 20 mins after swiping in before coming here so you're forgotten by the swiper. Hide in one of Furnald's floor lounges for 20 mins before walking out the front door.

[edit] Map

[edit] External Links

Columbia Housing - Furnald