Schapiro Hall

Morris A. Schapiro Hall, popularly known as Schapiro, is an undergraduate residence hall that mostly houses juniors in singles and sophomores in doubles. It has yet to earn the nickname "The Schap." It's on 115th St between Broadway and Riverside Drive. Schapiro was built in 1988 for $18m, making it the second newest residence hall after Broadway. When it was completed, Schapiro enabled Columbia to guarantee housing to all undergraduates for all 4 years for the first time in its history.

Schapiro singles usually go to rising seniors, and rising juniors with a lottery number better than 1600.

History

The story of Schapiro Hall's construction is almost as fascinating as the building itself. Schapiro Hall, which opened in 1987, was meant to end the non-guaranteed wait-list and provide four-year guaranteed housing for all Columbia undergraduates. This is a bit of a euphemism, as more than 90% of Columbia students had lived either on campus or in the immediate area since the 1950s. However, the undergraduate dorms had never been able to accommodate the full student body. For a while, interesting stop-gap measures were used, including housing male Columbia students in Barnard's Hewitt and Brooks Halls, but the housing crunch never lifted.

Many students comment on how well Schapiro is laid out and how functionally efficient it is. The reason for that is because Schapiro was possibly the first and only dormitory built at Columbia with active student and faculty input. Dean of Columbia College Robert Pollack convened an advisory committee which selected sites for kitchens, lounges, rooms, practice areas, and bathrooms. It was as much the creation of the students who would live in the building as the architect who built it.

However, the most interesting and touching story came with the construction of Schapiro Hall. The Schapiro brothers, Morris and Meyer, graduated in 1923 and 1924, respectively. Meyer Schapiro became one of the most distinguished art historians in the world, ending his career as a University Professor at Columbia. Morris Schapiro tried his hand at business, found fame and fortune. Yet, when Columbia's fundraisers approached him either in his or his brother's name, they were continuously rebuffed. The case was referred to Dean of Columbia College Robert Pollack, who dug up the 1924 Columbian yearbook. Dean Pollack noted two facts, that Morris Schapiro was a classic American-dream success story, and that he had been a rather fearsome chess player in his undergraduate days.

Dean Pollack assembled the 1984 Columbia chess team, which was a diverse mix of Asians, Russians, Creoles, all young, all idealistic, but most importantly, all just like Morris during his Columbia College (and School of Mines) days. He then paid a visit to Morris Schapiro's house where alumnus and students met, chatted, played chess, talked about Columbia, and the like. The topic of money was never brought up, but when Dean Pollack returned to Columbia, he had a $7 million check to build Schapiro Hall.

Facilities

Each floor has a lounge and kitchen. Schapiro has 17 floors that accommodate 245 singles and 85 doubles. Schapiro also has several music practice rooms, a laundry room, and access to the Schapiro Black Box Theater.

Floors

• Floor 17: faculty-in-residence penthouse.

Rooms

• 55 doubles
• 245 singles
• 30 walk-through doubles (05 and 07 line)

Advantages

• 04, 20 and 22 lines on floors 10-16 are large singles with south views onto 115th St.
• Nice first floor lounge and skylounge.

Disadvantages

• North-facing rooms on lower floors are in a shaft so they get little light.
• 02-line: very small walk-through doubles, with noise from elevator, next to the trash chute.
• 07-line: small walk-through doubles, again with noise from elevator.
• Watch out for room 902.
• Nauseating combo of pale neon lighting and peeling pure-white paint.
• Malfunctioning heating system.
• No modular shelves.

Photos

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  Double (room 605), view 1

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  Double (room 605), view 2

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  The largest single, view 1

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  The largest single, view 2

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  The largest single, view 3

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  The largest single, view 4

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  Floor lounge, view 1

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  Floor lounge, view 2

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  Floor kitchen

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  First floor lounge

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  View out of the first floor lounge

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  Skylounge

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  View out of the skylounge, north

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  View out of the skylounge, north-west

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  View out of the skylounge, south

Floor plans

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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 6

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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

Map

<googlemap lat="40.807816" lon="-73.965349" type="map" zoom="16" width="500" height="300" controls="small"> 40.807816, -73.965349, Schapiro residence hall </googlemap>

Significant contributors

• Tao Tan