Everything about Alfred Lerner Hall totally explained
Alfred Lerner Hall is the
student center or students' union of
Columbia University. It is named for
Al Lerner, who financed its construction. Situated on the university's historic
Morningside Heights campus in
New York City, the building, designed by
deconstructivist architect
Bernard Tschumi, then dean of Columbia's
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, opened in
1999, replacing the previous student center, Ferris Booth Hall, which stood from 1960-1996. It attempts to both conform to its context of neoclassical
McKim, Mead, and White buildings as well as break out of their mold. In so doing, Lerner Hall features redbrick cladding and proportions that hold the street wall of university buildings along
Broadway, but reveals a vast glass wall to the campus fabricated by
Eiffel Constructions Metalliques, descendant of the firm that built the
Eiffel Tower. Behind the wall are a series of escalating ramps that give the building a unified sense of space and are meant to act as a social meeting place much like the steps of
Low Memorial Library.
The building began receiving harsh criticism even before it was completed. The escalating ramps have never met their purpose as a social meeting place, instead taking up valuable space and slowing movement between floors. The layout--particularly in the administrative areas of the building--has been described as labyrinthine. Neighbors protested that the building serves to further wall off Columbia from the community. Architecture critics have lambasted it for managing to be simultaneously dull and offensive.
Lerner Hall features both a cinema and auditorium named for
Roone Arledge, a Columbia alumnus with a distinguished career in sports broadcasting and television news. The building also contains eateries, performance space, student club space, lounges, and administrative offices.
Traditions
Lerner Hall is home to social events throughout the academic year. The most significant, perhaps, are the
Varsity Show, a satirical musical about university life, and Glass House Rocks, in which Lerner (the "glass house") is transformed into a giant party space (the event takes its name from the former television series
School House Rock).
Notable events
In
2005, Lerner Hall was the site of a prank by the university's Senior Society of Sachems, which decorated the ramps overnight with saffron colored banners imitating
The Gates, an artistic installation by the artists
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, then on display in
Central Park.
In film and television
An episode of the Comedy Central show Stella features the ramps and a lounge as an airport terminal.Further Information
Get more info on 'Alfred Lerner Hall'.
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