East Campus

See also Wikipedia's article about "East Campus (Columbia University)".

East Campus (in common parlance, EC) is the largest residence hall. A $28.7 million dollar facility, it was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates architects and built from 1979 - 1982. It was completely renovated in 1991, and has received additional renovations in 1997, 2002, and 2004. Technically, the high-rise part of EC is called "Hudson Hall" after SEAS alumnus Percy K. Hudson, but nobody calls it that. This is probably because EC is the dorm the furthest from the Hudson River.

EC is a large facility with mulitple facilities, somem containing their own exterior entrances, others hidden within the residence hall's security screen. The security-controlled entrance to the dormitory building and the Heyman Center is located on Ancel Plaza. Separate entrances to the Center for Career Education and the Facilities Management office are located in the bowels of the EC complex, next to Wien Hall and across from Faculty House.

History

Early plans

An earlier plan for East Campus (1965), by Harrison and Abromovitz architects, included twin concrete slab towers. Along with the rest of the ambitious expansion plans of University President Grayson L. Kirk, it was scrapped in the wake of the 1968 protests against, among other things, a university gym proposed for nearby Morningside Park. When expansion finally did reach East Campus, by the late 1970s, the university was seeking a more humanist design, one which would both harmonize better with the surrounding campus and reflect, to some degree, the residential college quads of Oxford and Yale.

Opening and response

When East Campus opened, students appreciated its expansive suite space, commanding views, and spacious townhouses, which were a relieving contrast to cramped conditions in much of the rest of the university's housing. Many of the outer townhouses were donated and built by famous Columbia University benefactors. The most notable of these is Thomas J. Watson, Jr. who donated the popular Watson House. Donor George Delacorte, for whom the building's central courtyard is formally named, said of his former room at the university "we had two nails on the wall for a closet...now I've paid for a dormitory where boys loll around in marble bathtubs." The bathrooms are not, however, actually marble, but imitate that material.

East Campus' original red and white tile cladding was praised as innovative by architectural critics. The American Institute of Architects' Guide to New York City called it "elegant and handsome".

Despite such positive views, reception to the building was mixed overall. New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote of East Campus:

"Consider a building that has to be vandal-proof, constructed of maintenance-free materials with every surface resistant to neglect and abuse, where violation of design and function must be an anticipated fact, along with defacement and petty thievery -- a place where surveillance is a necessity and population is transient. A description of a minimum security prison? Not at all. This is a dormitory for Columbia University... it is easy to see how an austerely simple aesthetic can be brought down to this dispiriting level..."

Murder

On October 10, 1985, a SEAS student, Sarah M. Thomas, was stabbed in her East Campus suite by an intruder, a man who had been signed in as a guest by another resident. It was one of a number of violent crimes in the Columbia dormitories during the 1980s, including an infamous murder-suicide which took place in Ruggles.

Reconstruction

An inspection in 1987 revealed that the tiled exterior which had earned the building accolades had begun to peel off its facade, and a large chunk collapsed into its courtyard in February 1988, prompting the university to order its recladding, a $15 million project handled by the architects Gruzon Sampton Steinglass, in the campus' traditional red brick and limestone. In the course of the scandal, Columbia sued both Gwathmey Siegel and the engineering firm that had worked on the project.

Later history

In 2006, a homophobic message written on a dry-erase board in East Campus was denounced as a hate crime, the sixth one alleged that year, and prompted the creation of the contrversial student group SHOCC.

Famous residents

East Campus was home to US presidential adviser and television news personality George Stephanopoulos, and actors Matthew Fox, Julia Stiles and Rider Strong, all of whom lived in the Watson House townhouse. Controversial political cartoonist Ted Rall also lived in East Campus, but was kicked out after targeting pedestrians below his window with water balloons.

Facilities

East Campus has two main types of suites: townhouse suites and high-rise suites.

Groups need at least 2 seniors (as well as 1 junior and 2 sophomores) to get an Exclusion Suite. Only some groups with only 1 senior are usually able to get these suites.

Every suite has a kitchen and bathroom.

Suites

• 7 high-rise 5-person suites with 5 singles

• 7 high-rise 6-person suites with 6 singles

• 56 high-rise 5-person 'exclusion' suites with 3 singles and 1 double

• 35 high-rise 2-person apartments

• 10 townhouse 4-person suites with 4 singles.

Last one was taken by 30/1004 in 2003, 30/1327 in 2004, 30/785 in 2005, 30/398 in 2006.

• 12 townhouse 6-person suites with 4 singles and 1 double.

Last one was taken by 30/2703 in 2003, 30/2743 in 2004, 20/600 in 2005, 30/2753 in 2006.

H1003, H1004, H603 and H803 are Greek.

H104, H203, H304, H403, H504, H704, H903, H904 are in the lottery

• 28 townhouse 6-person suites with 6 singles

Last one was taken by ? in 2003, 30/1830 in 2004, 30/2913 in 2005, 30/1836 in 2006.

Advantages

• Large suite lounges.
• Suite bathrooms.
• Recently-built.
• Clean.
• Strong community.

Disadvantages

• Frequently malfunctioning highrise elevators.
• Crazy lines at the security desk on weekends.

Images

The high-rise suite is 1410, and the townhouse is 1003.

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  Suite lounge, view 1

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  Suite lounge, view 2

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  View from suite lounge

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  Suite kitchen

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  High-rise single, view 1

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  High-rise single, view 2

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  High-rise single, view 3

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  High-rise double

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  Suite bathroom

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  Floor 8 lounge

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  View from floor 8 lounge

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  Townhouse lounge

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  Townhouse single, view 1

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  Townhouse single, view 2

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  View from townhouse

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  Building lounge, view 1

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  Building lounge, view 2

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  Building facade

Floor plans

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  Floor 1

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  Floor 2

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  Floor 3

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  Floor 4

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  Floor 5

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  Floor 7

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  Floor 8

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  Floor 9

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  Floor 10

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  Floor 11

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  Floor 12

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  Floor 13

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  Floor 14

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  Floor 15

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  Floor 16

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  Floor 17

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  Floor 18

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  Floor 19

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  Floor 20

Map

<googlemap lat="40.807049" lon="-73.959564" type="map" zoom="16" width="500" height="300" controls="small"> 40.807049, -73.959564, East Campus residence hall </googlemap>

Building address

70 Morningside Dr.
New York, NY 10027

External Links

• Columbia Housing - East Campus