Milstein Center, Barnard College

3011 Broadway | also 42 Claremont Avenue, 40 Claremont Avenue, 3009 Broadway | Morningside Heights | built 2018

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 2016

    Barnard prepares to demolish Lehman Hall, moving its library out and planning to relocate a magnolia tree

    In fall 2016 Barnard's chief operating officer, Rob Goldberg, updated the community on preparations to take down Lehman Hall, which held the library, faculty offices and several departments, to make way for a new Teaching & Learning Center. Most of the library's books and archives had gone to off-site storage that summer, and about 20,000 heavily used volumes were available at Columbia's Butler Library. The college also planned to move a campus magnolia to the Diana Center terrace in mid-November and to build new above-ground tunnels between Barnard Hall and Altschul Hall over winter break.

    Source: columbiaspectator.com

  2. 2018

    October 3

    Barnard opens the $137 million Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning on the site of Lehman Hall

    On October 3, 2018, Barnard held the formal opening of the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning, named for donors Cheryl and Philip Milstein. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the 128,000-square-foot building, which has a five-floor base and an 11-floor tower beside Altschul Hall. Gifts of $25 million each from the Milsteins and the Tow Foundation and $20 million from Diana and P. Roy Vagelos helped pay for it. Its occupants include the library, an archives reading room, the Athena Center for Leadership Studies and the Barnard Center for Research on Women.

    Source: barnard.edu

  3. 2018

    Fall

    The Milstein Center gathers Barnard's research and teaching centers around its new library

    When the Milstein Center opened in fall 2018, Barnard placed a group of academic centers inside it alongside the library. The college's page for the building lists the Athena Center for Leadership, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the Center for Engaged Pedagogy, the Design Center, the Digital Humanities Center, the Empirical Reasoning Center, the Movement Lab, the Sloate Media Center and the Vagelos Computational Science Center. Barnard calls the building the academic hub at the heart of its campus.

    Source: barnard.edu

  4. 2019

    May

    The terraced Milstein Center is one of six libraries honored with a 2019 AIA/ALA Library Building Award

    In May 2019 the American Library Association and the American Institute of Architects named the Milstein Center one of six award-winning libraries. The program's description credits the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design as a response to Barnard's lawn: a five-story base steps back in terraces so that sunlight keeps reaching the grass. The terraces also cut the heat-island effect and serve as outdoor study space. A cantilevered volume at the top holds a faculty lounge with views of the Hudson, Columbia's campus and Midtown.

    Source: ala.org

  5. 2025

    March 5

    Student protesters occupy the Milstein Center and nine are arrested after a bomb threat

    On March 5, 2025, students from Columbia University Apartheid Divest began a sit-in at the Milstein Center to protest the expulsion of three students over earlier campus actions. Barnard officials reported a bomb threat and had the NYPD clear the protesters; of about 75 demonstrators, nine were arrested on charges including trespass and obstructing governmental administration. The threat was later established to be fake, and reporting noted that the protesters themselves were its stated targets.

    “…the NYPD to arrest students. Barnard officials reported there was a bomb threat and had the NYPD forcibly remove the protesters, arresting nine people.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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All 49 buildings with stories in Morningside Heights