Page 220 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

218  NE W Y ORK CIT Y AREA B Y AREA

Charles McKim, the architect,
placed the university on a
terrace, serenely above street
level. Its spacious lawns and
plazas still create a sense of
contrast in the busy city.
Columbia is noted for its
law, medicine, and journalism
schools. Its distinguished faculty
and alumni, past and present,
include over 50 Nobel laureates.
Famous alumni include Isaac
Asimov, J. D. Salinger, James Facade of St. Paul’s Chapel
Cagney, and Joan Rivers. Across
the street is the affiliated Barnard
College, a highly selective liberal 3 Low Library
arts college for women. Columbia University. Map 20 E3.
Alma Mater statue at the Low Library, q 116th St-Columbia University.
Columbia University
A Classical columned building
1 Columbia atop three flights of stone
University stairs, the library was donated
by Seth Low, a former mayor
Main entrance at W 116th St and and college president. The
Broadway. Map 20 E3. Tel (212) statue in front of it, Alma Mater
854-1754. q 116th St-Columbia by Daniel Chester French,
University. Visitors’ Center: Open became familiar as the
9am–5pm Mon–Fri. 8 1pm Mon,
Wed & Thu (no tours in May). backdrop to the many 1968
∑ columbia.edu Interior brick vaulting of St. Paul’s anti-Vietnam War student
Chapel dome demonstrations. The building
This is the third location of one is now used as offices, and
of America’s oldest universities. 2 St. Paul’s Chapel its rotunda for a variety of
Founded in 1754 as King’s Columbia University. Map 20 E3. academic and ceremonial
College, it was first situated Tel (212) 854-1487, for concert info. purposes. The books were
close to where the World Trade q 116th St-Columbia Univ. moved in 1934 to the Butler
Center stood. Open 10am–11pm Mon–Sat (term Library, across the quadrangle.
In 1814, when a move uptown time), 10am–4pm (breaks). 5 Sun. 7 The university’s library
was proposed, the university collections total more than
approached the authorities for Columbia’s most outstanding six million volumes.
funding but was instead given a building, built in 1904, is a mix
plot of land valued at $75,000 on of Italian Renaissance, Byzantine,
which to build a new home. The and Gothic. The interior 4 Cathedral of St.
university never built on the land Guastavino vaulting is of John the Divine
itself, but leased it out and spent intricate patterns of aged red
the years from 1857 to 1897 brick; the whole chapel is See pp220–21.
in buildings nearby. It finally bathed in light from above.
sold the plot in 1985 to the The free organ concerts offer
leaseholders, Rockefeller Center an exceptionally fine way to 5 Riverside Church
Inc., for $400 million. appreciate the beauty and 490 Riverside Dr at 122nd St. Map 20
The present campus was acoustics of this church. The D2. Tel (212) 870-6700. q 116th St-
begun in 1897 on the site of the Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ is Columbia Univ. Open 7am–10pm
Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. renowned for its fine tone. daily. 5 8:30am & 10:45am Sun. 7
8 12:15pm Sun; Carillon bell con certs;
(212) 870-6784; 10:30am, 12:30pm &
3pm Sun. Theater; (212) 870-6784. -
∑ theriversidechurchny.org
A 21-story steel frame with a
Gothic exterior, the church
design was inspired by the
cathedral at Chartres, France.
It was lavishly funded by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1930.
Columbia University’s main courtyard and the Low Library The Laura Spelman Rockefeller

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