Jerome Greene Hall

Jerome Greene Hall

Jerome Greene Hall, home of Columbia Law School is one of Columbia's hideous 1960s architectural 'mistakes'. JGH, along with Uris for the Business School, Mudd for the Engineering School, and IAB for SIPA, was built with donor money solicited by the deans of schools. The primary aims of each dean and donor was to build the most cost-efficient and practical building for the school- aesthetics weren't really all that important. And whatever aesthetics considered were those informed by 1960s chic, i.e. ugly.

JGH was designed by the firm Harrison and Abromowitz, better known for their work on Lincoln Center. The window boxes on the two narrow ends of the building, often described as being fit for a Mussolini-esque dictator to salute the masses, have earned the building its nickname of "the toaster."

The building's western facade is graced by Jacques Lipschitz's 1967 sculpture "Bellerophon Taming Pegasus", donated in 1977 by alumni of the school. The sculpture is said to represent the experience CLS 1L's endure.

In the late 1990s the Jerome Greene underwent a major renovation, resulting the construction of the new entrance, lounges, and cafeteria on 116th and Amsterdam. This was followed by gut renovations of the building's classrooms and offices.