Columbia Alumni Center (McVickar Hall)

622 West 113th Street | also 620 West 113th Street | Morningside Heights | built 1908

Open on the map6 entries

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

1. 1908

   Schwartz & Gross design an eight-story Georgian Revival apartment house for V. Cerabone

   Schwartz & Gross designed the apartment house at 622 West 113th Street for the V. Cerabone Construction Company in 1908, a few years after the subway opened. Its Georgian Revival facade has rusticated limestone on the lower two floors, Flemish-bond red brick above, and arched top-story windows with projecting keystones and swags. The Landmarks Preservation Commission counts it as a contributing building in the Morningside Heights Historic District.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1908

   A 1909 directory lists the new building at 622 West 113th Street as Victor Hall

   The Supplement to Apartment Houses of the Metropolis, published in 1909, includes Victor Hall at 622 West 113th Street, at Riverside Drive, with plans of the first and upper floors and a view down Riverside Drive. Its notes name V. Cerabone Construction Co. as builder in 1908 and Schwartz & Gross as architects. The building later became Columbia's McVickar Hall.

   Source: digitalcollections.nypl.org

3. 1971

   Columbia's School of Social Work moves into McVickar Hall, a former residence hotel

   In 1971 the School of Social Work took over McVickar Hall, which had been a single-room-occupancy hotel, on 113th Street. The school had spent more than two decades in Andrew Carnegie's mansion at 2 East 91st Street, which it occupied from 1949. Columbia Magazine later called McVickar grossly inadequate for the school, which stayed there until 2004.

   Source: magazine.columbia.edu

4. 2004

   The School of Social Work leaves McVickar Hall for a new building on Amsterdam Avenue

   In fall 2004 the School of Social Work moved to a new 11-story building at Amsterdam Avenue and 121st Street. Columbia Magazine said the building offered 13 classrooms, plus a library of 7,000 square feet, a computer lab with 50 seats, and rooms for seminars and conferences. By spring 2005 McVickar Hall stood empty while the university weighed its options.

   Source: magazine.columbia.edu

5. 2009

   McVickar Hall becomes Columbia's first Alumni Center

   In 2009 McVickar Hall became the home of Columbia's first Alumni Center, serving the Office of Alumni and Development and Columbia College Alumni Affairs and Development. The renovation restored the windows, cornice and facade, replaced building systems, built new offices and workspace, and added zoned heating, ventilation and air conditioning that continuously brings in outside air.

   Source: designconstruct.cufo.columbia.edu

6. 2011

   January

   The renovated Alumni Center earns LEED Gold certification

   The U.S. Green Building Council certified Columbia's Alumni Center at McVickar Hall as LEED Gold in January 2011. Columbia's Design and Construction office lists the project as completed administrative space on the Morningside campus.

   Source: designconstruct.cufo.columbia.edu

Nearby

• River Hall628 West 114th Street | 4 entries
• Bank Street College of Education610 West 112th Street | 7 entries
• 2901 Broadway2 entries
• St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School619 West 114th Street | 5 entries
• McBain Hall2892 Broadway | 3 entries
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All 49 buildings with stories in Morningside Heights