One of the overarching goals of the new Manhattanville facilities is to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration. The 9-story, steel-framed Greene Science Center, for example, accomplishes this with by clustering meeting rooms at the core and ringing them with open-plan labs and social spaces such as kitchens and outdoor terraces. Three sides of the building are clad in an ultra-transparent double-skin curtain wall that will allow students and passersby to see the activity taking place within. Its facade system also helps make the building into what Renzo Piano refers to as a “palace of light.” It lets ample daylight in, while controlling heat gain and glare. In addition, it mitigates the sound of the nearby elevated train line.

As with all of the new campus’s buildings, the ground floor of the Greene Science Center will be programmed for community use. It houses a wellness center that will provide health screenings to West Harlem residents and a lab that will offer neuroscience education to K-12 students. These are all part of a multi-faceted agreement with the neighborhood and an acknowledgment of the university’s hard-fought, multi-year battle to realize the project. The effort entailed rezoning the land and the use of eminent domain to acquire some of the property. “It took forbearance and forgiveness on the part of the surrounding community for Columbia to have this site,” said Bollinger.