Carman Hall
545 West 114th Street | also 1100 Amsterdam Avenue | Morningside Heights | built 1912
Open on the map5 entries
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.
- 1957
Ground is broken for a dormitory designed by the Empire State Building's architects
Columbia broke ground in 1957 on a residence hall then called New Hall, together with an adjacent student center, Ferris Booth Hall. Harvey Clarkson of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the firm that designed the Empire State Building, was the architect. The hall opened in 1959 to Columbia College's all-male undergraduates.
“The building, originally named New Hall, broke ground in 1957 along with an adjacent student center called Ferris Booth Hall.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1959
The Spectator holds a naming contest for the new, nameless dormitory
When the new dormitory opened in September 1959, Columbia had not named it. The Spectator ran an informal contest that month. The serious winner proposed Hawkes Hall for Herbert Hawkes, dean from 1918 to 1943, while the humorous winner suggested Aaron Burr Hall as a counterpart to Hamilton Hall. The administration endorsed neither, and the building went on as New Hall. Spectator articles of the time said Columbia hoped a donor would cover its federal housing loan in exchange for naming rights.
Source: college.columbia.edu
- 1962
Critic Allan Temko calls the new dormitory dull and bureaucratic
In 1962 the architecture critic Allan Temko again faulted the dormitory, then still unnamed, as dull and bureaucratic, with skimpy and unimaginative detail. He had earlier likened its long halls and its pairs of double rooms sharing a bath to a Victorian reformatory, and its lounge to a bus station with piped music. Other critics, among them Ada Louise Huxtable and Robert A. M. Stern, also judged the building poorly.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1965
The unnamed dormitory is christened Carman Hall after a former dean
After nearly six years as New Hall, the dormitory received its name on April 29, 1965. Early that year the Spectator had published an editorial proposing that it honor Harry J. Carman, who led Columbia College as dean from 1943 to 1950 and died in December 1964. The Trustees approved the name.
Source: college.columbia.edu
- 2021
Carman and Lerner halls are evacuated after online bomb threats
On November 7, 2021, Carman Hall and Lerner Hall were evacuated after posts on Twitter claimed that 40 improvised explosives had been planted in four campus spots, Butler, Carman and Lerner halls and the bookstore, with more on College Walk. Cornell and Brown universities also reported bomb threats that day. The NYPD finished its investigation and judged the threats not credible, and Columbia gave the all-clear so students could return.
Source: jpost.com
Further reading
- Carman HallWikipedia
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