115th Street Brownstones

The 115th Street Brownstones are three brownstone buildings on the south side of W. 115th Street (Nos. 408, 410, and 412) between Amsterdam Ave. and Morningside Drive that Columbia has slated for demolition over the objection of local politicians who want them preserved as historic exemplars of "the earliest built multiunit residential buildings that still stand in Morningside Heights." They are not to be confused with the law school-owned brownstones across the street.

Plans for site

Columbia has no known plans for the site once it is cleared. The site had been designated as the location of a proposed $126 million undergraduate dormitory that would constructed to accommodate a 15% increase in the enrollment at Columbia College (~600 students) envisioned by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. The construction was to be funded in part by a yet-to-be-secured $60 million gift, despite the fact that the University had yet to secure a naming gift for Broadway Residence Hall over seven years after it had opened. As it turned out, no gift was forthcoming, and the financial crisis of 2008 forced the University to expand enrollment immediately while abandoning the plan for the dormitory. As a result graduate student building Harmony Hall was converted to undergraduate housing in 2009-2010, and 548 W. 113th Street, a brownstone typically reserved for fraternities or Special Interest Communities in 2010-2011.

External links

• CU Seeks to Demolish Brownstones O’Donnell Deems Historic, Columbia Spectator, 30 January 2009
• Columbia to proceed with disputed demolition, Columbia Spectator, 2 December 2009